David Pace O’Shea
Precious Catholic identity
In general, we Maltese are a helpful people. We are generous, hard working, humble, careful with our money, welcoming, peaceful and unaggressive. We love our families and, especially, our children.
We are quite loyal not only to our spouses but even to our friends and family. Our faith, especially in God, is a thing most of us still cherish.
It doesn’t mean that we are all like that but these are still predominant features in us Maltese.
There is obviously also a downside to us. We swear a lot, we tend to grumble and are highly politicised and not so environment friendly, we gossip, we are obese and are not avid readers.
That we may keep this little nation a better place to live in, we need to hang on to and improve the positive part while warding off the negative traits. The many investments we have drawn to our country, the strength of many of our marriages, the low level of crime and the high degree of social benefits are attributable to the values and to the way of living we have worked for along the years.
There are a number of reasons that make us who we are today but, no matter how deep rooted our good qualities are, unless we nurture them, they will not withstand the challenges of time in this fast changing global village.
Probably, our climate and long hours of sunshine do effect our moods in a positive way. The fact that we have been a nation that’s isolated on the one hand yet made up of settlers from different nations and different occupiers, has given us a better adaptation in this world.
There is, however, no denying that the Church in Malta has played a strong role in the nurturing of our nation.
For thousands of years our nation has been fed the teachings of Christ, about God as the Creator of all things, about Jesus the redeemer, about forgiveness, love, faithfulness and loyalty, tolerance, sincerity, life after this life, happiness in perseverance, trust in providence, the consequence of sin and the need to abide by the Church’s teachings.
The people, on the other hand, have far and large embraced what the Church fed.
We are today globally facing challenges to this Christian philosophy of looking at things. Not that this is something new or that started recently but it is a fact that the challanges are strong today. Malta is not isolated in this respect.
Though the sea and the ecclesial hierarchy might have been moats and bastions in other eras, nowadays they are not. To make things worse paedophilia within the priesthood, inconsistency in teachings and advice, idolatry and different forms of paganism within the Church, negative behaviour of Chrsitians themselves, boring homilies and a laissez-faire attitude to the spiritual by the parents are all leading to an erosion of the Church as an institution that would otherwise help us keep the positive traits of our nation.
The situation has deteriorated globally and while Church leaders have always sought ways of re-energ ising and re-evangalising the people of God, the present Pope has even gone as far as creating a Dicastery within the Roman Curia to understand and work on this phenomena. In Malta, the ecclesial authorites have followed and are also in pursuit of giving a new life to the good news Christ brought to the world.
Evangalising, per se, is a good thing but at times it is not being explained nor is it being appreciated as a solution. While evanglasing in the sense that God loves us and that Jesus died for us, for our salvation and that He is there, open for us to share in the experience of His presence is always the priority of the evangalising mission, it cannot stop there.
This is not like introducing a new product on the market but more like continuing a plan for a better life and afterlife that was started thousands of years ago. In a way, we are all leaders and followers in this path we have chosen and we have to examine our ways from both perspectives. The well-being of the Church and the goodness that can affect the individual and the nation should not be the concern of the religious alone but of all the universal community.
The Church started from persecuted communities, rode on the back of the Roman Empire and flourished. It established its social and spiritual institutions and dominated the politcal arena, particularly in Europe – for long years bearing a strong influence on society.
The Church has had many facets, which included educating, giving moral guidance, social support, cultural and community building and administrating besides many others that, at times, even went against the founder’s concepts.
While still very influential, it now looks more like a devotional, moral guiding and tradition keeping institution. But is this what it was meant to be? Was the mission of the Church only intended to be limited to a spiritual well-being of the people or was it intended to enter the fabric of society and build a borderless nation? Are we as Catholics only to be Catholics in the spiritual and devotional domain or should we encrypt our values in every aspect of our lives – be them political, fiscal entertainment or a relationship.
In a world that has come a long way and that carries a very heavy baggage of experiences, the Church can easily turn into a dinasour insitution that looks like something of the past. It can, on the other hand, rejuvenate itself. It can prove to society that it not only fulfills a spiritual role but a social one as well; if its members did not consider themselves as pilgrims in an alien world but co-creators in an awesome universe.
If we appreciated that Christ did not come just for our salvation from hell but also to build a kingdom to be defined by the qualities we find in his teachings. If we undersood that the Church is not just the people at the Curia or the priests and nuns but that it is we as a people with good intent and followers of Christ, then I believe that the calling would be a strong one again.
In the past there were those who protested and split the union that Christ idealised about. Others rejuvenated themselves to rejuvenate the whole. In the face of so many adversities, of global volatility, of worries and let downs and suffering we need to strengthen our union as a people of God and cherish our heritage.
Be it the Pope, the Bishops, priest or laity, all those whose heart resonates with the calling need to respond.
Malta might not be a utopia and our religion might not have solved our problems but it definitely gave us a way of living that reflects itself in our identity.
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Joe Xuereb
Feb 24th, 12:28
Anyhow, School for Life according to one Bottom never could have Conway Hall as a venue, no way! ............
This should have read, School for Life according to one Bottom (as in derriere) never could happen anywhere but at Conway Hall. Apologies for any other typos - that goddamn fever again! - such and other grammatical mistakes are of no consequence, I am not out to impress. After all, in discussions such as these it is the content that counts.
I note that said discussion has generated two camps (luv that word!). The heavenly pros and the goddamn cons. Predictable, and interesting. The cons could turn turncoats and would stand to gain, big time. Free opium. A kind of methadone, a cockaine substitute but one that does not wean one off - ever. No prescription charges either other than what one throws in the sassla(silver plate). Easily done as faith may be a gift from on high - unfair and unjust, why her and not moi? sort of thing - but these days, one can buy it in a Mammon supermarket. The pros on the other hand can not turn turncoats as they have everything to lose(well, they gain a life but from their vantage point they cannot grasp this so they are stuck like a constipating stool, a latter part impasse). Just a little thought. To ponder. From an ignoranus (to keep to the theme, you understand).
Thought for the day. One has to have a sense of humour. Even/especially, when the chips are down. And down they are. Just look around you. Turning the other eye - never mind the cheek - will resolve nothing.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 23rd, 23:01
In response to Francis Sammut's comment here (Feb.20th 18:38), I submitted a comment and sent it hoping for it to appear against this article. No suck luck. Instead, it appeared here (see link below) where it did appear. I'd sent it there in error. Apologies! I get feverish and if that is a sin, so be it. For some odd reason it has been deemed unsuitable here, its proper place.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120221/world/protest-over-burning-of-korans.407875
A couple of Sundays back I went to my usual Sunday morning congregation at Conway Hall, the temple to secularism if ever there was one. We always have a guest speaker, with philosophers, scientists among them. At times these are heavy going for non-philosophical minds like mine and I have been known to doze off(I even dozed off at one of Richard Dawkins talks not so long ago. Science! who needs it) . Anyhow, on this particular Sunday there was a huge crowd waiting to go into the Great Hall(my meeting was in the smaller Bertrand Russell Hall and of course that is where I went. A commitment is just that). The big crowd, I found out, was there for one Alain de Botton who was promoting his book Religion for Atheists, a paperback for £18.00. a throw. The guy is prolific and writes about anything and everything. A middle-aged man born with a silver spoon in his gob, sorry! mouth, very intelligent with it and effortlessly, tries to make sense of life like the rest of us.
As I came out of the small hall I saw the big crowd again coming out, many looking quite flushed and even in couples, they each bought a copy of the book. These are people, mainly British 30somethings with more money than sense and this would have been a typical way to pass a Sunday am. At least it was not the Alpha Course, another popular pop gathering(one course was televised in a church near hear and sadder bunch of losers one could not imagine. And the preacher! talk about a simpering, spineless git). Anyhow, School for Life according to one Bottom never could have Conway Hall as a venue, no way! Oh people are looking for spirituality OK! but not as we understand that to be in dear old Malta.
Now, some days ago, somebody here, and against their better judgement, chose Alain de Botton to prop up their theory about religious atheism as they understood it. What a sad choice of prop! Of course there is a possibility that they were talking of another Alain, the one with the head of a donkey perhaps? in A Midsummer Night's Dream?
http://religionforatheists.com/
http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/events
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Place_Ethical_Society
@Leo Attard. Thank you for your comment/s. You told me all I needed to know.
charles caruana
Feb 22nd, 15:28
@ William Flynn
Ad Hominem – now that is really rich coming from someone like you, the arch insulter of what millions hold most holy to their persons and their lives. Such elegant words as ‘puerile, indoctrinated, blinkered’ have nothing ad hominem about them of course. Your education shouts its limitations and distortions in your posts- it does not require special insight to see that.
Do you take what you wrote to be an essay? The great Montaigne would have been impressed, I’m sure. You want me to specify where your logic is wrong? There is no logic, only an emotional and psychological complex that tries to rationalise itself with pathetic reasoning. An example of your logic? The fact that you are convinced that religion, and the Catholic Church in particular, have not done one iota of good to humanity – only harm and poison, to use the word of Hitchens, who at least had far more style and panache than someone like you can ever dream of.. Is there anything remotely logical or even true in such statements and judgements?
First you refer to the great masters and thinkers, then you contradict yourself in the next paragraph by dismissing them as ‘all we got in art were depictions of god, winged faces, dull saints in clerical habit making tortured eyes’ Is that logic? You dismiss Michaleangelo’s, Raphael’s and Leonardo’s sublime art as ‘innumerable boring Madonnas and babies holding out three fingers who seldom smiled; dark depictions of that terrible Friday afternoon.’ Is that logical? Modern artists of the 19th and 20th century would have laughed you out of existence for saying that, had they not pitied you before. Some of them may have been atheist, but not as obtuse as you are.
Listen and learn what a contemporary but much better informed atheist has to say about what you are illogically raving about: ‘that religions merit our attention for their sheer conceptual ambition; for changing the world in a way that few secular institutions ever have. They have managed to combine theories about ethics and metaphysics with practical involvement in education, fashion, politics, travel, hostelry, initiation ceremonies, publishing, art and architecture - a range of interests which puts to shame the scope of the achievements of even the greatest and most influential secular movements and individuals in history’ Alain de Botton. Unlike you, this atheist has the humility and the grace to admit the truth of the evidence.
Dante and Chaucer ‘jailed by the church’, the ‘jailer of art, literature, philosophy and social freedom’? A fifth form student would split his sides at this logical absurdity. You even deny the universally acknowledged historical fact that Universities were founded by Christian men in the Middle Ages! How self-embarrassing can one get? That is to be in denial with a vengeance. Do you think you have impressed anyone with your cliched list of past Church mistakes? I can repeat and acknowledge most of the mistakes made by members of the Church throughout the ages, and add to them others that you are not even aware of, but that does not blind me with the bigotry and hatred to its immense contributions to humanity. Logic has nothing to do with one-sided arguments, as I presume you know Mr Flynn?
You wax oh so poetic in your rhapsodies about the internet, yet you only manage to repeat spasmodically that the internet will kill religion, substituting pathetic wishful thinking for logical and scientific evidence. Come on, deny that religion is all over the internet, which has given it a new lease of life, and add another logical fallacy to your formidable collection of them
‘Religious doctrine is the language of and for the ignorant’ Another logical gem from your fruitful fantasy life. There are thousands who use its language; comparing your intellect to theirs is like holding a candle to the sun.
‘I have easily and comfortably rebutted every argument that Mr Caruana has presented’ – yes in your wildest, most illogical dreams.
My case rests here. My time, like my Catholic identity, is too precious to waste.
Mr leo attard
Feb 22nd, 20:22
one can also add how it was the clergy of the middle ages who saved a lot of the ancient pagan literature from the ravages of the viking raids. Monks spent most of their time copying ancient texts by hand and the manuscripts themselves are works of art
David Pace
Feb 22nd, 15:14
......but the beauty that manifests itself mostly as a consequence of our Catholic identity can be seen in the solace that people find in their relationship with God. In the institutions like Dar Tal-Providenza, in the three homes of Dun Ang Seychel at Zejtun, in the Ursuline Sisters’ Homes, in the Cana movement, in the Charismatic Renewal Groups, in the Fokolarini, in members of the MUZEW. These groups and institutions are made up mostly of volunteers and dedicated people who for the love of Christ are trying to become better people and serving others in their limitations. The beauty can be seen in the priests and nuns who gave up on so many things in life to serve God and his people. In so many people who in the solitude of their homes are caring for a loved one, with great fortitude and yet glad to be doing so for the love of Christ. In the serenity people feel in the hope that after this veil of tears there is a better life in an eternity of joy with their Creator. In the generosity of the people who willingly fork out so much money for good causes in the Church. These and so many others are the fruit of our Catholic faith and the Church whose marvel can be appreciated in the fact that so many have acted against it but has withstood the test of time. To live in Malta amidst a people who cherish and practice such generosity and good will is something which those who cannot appreciate cannot enjoy.
C Muscat
Feb 22nd, 14:05
Humanity shall never know the entire bill of damage the Catholic church has wrought on mankind’s march forward.
Some we do know and are measurable insofar as they are benchmarks of callousness.
Do you mean the Church has only been negative??!!
Religious doctrine is the language of and for the ignorant and cannot compete against knowledge given freely, unstintingly, with no strings and in non-dogmatic fashion.
Fortunately religion is free for all; it is like the sun that shines for those that want sunbathing and if people like you do not want to gain anything from religion; like the sun that keeps shining while some people stay in the cellar they lose the shine and other get the warmth of the sun. Naturally if you think that I am ignorant it is up to you but I am sure that many believers like me has given a lot to society. We are not ignorant and believe me you are missing so much!!!
William Flynn
Feb 22nd, 11:45
Mr Caruana
Mr Caruana uses the same old apologist fallacies without even realising and then disgraces himself and the intellect of readers by useless ad hominem attacks on my education, (about which he knows as much as I know about his; nothing), and what he refers to as my lack of logic, without specifying where my logic is wrong.
I, on the other hand, can and shall punch holes into his logic without any effort.
I shall also let the readers decide which essay is the better quality in language, fact and argument; his or mine.
Typically, Mr Caruana’s thinking is so percolated through religion that he also percolates European art, literature, sociology and philosophy through religion.
He illogically draws the fallacious conclusion that by the Catholic church controlling and censuring art, philosophy and literature, it should be credited with the great masters and thinkers. Rather we should bemoan what they could and would have produced in a free artistic and scholastic environment; such as that of Europe in the 19th and 20th century.
Instead, all we got in art were depictions of god, winged faces, dull saints in clerical habit making tortured eyes at a crucifix or carrying their own instruments of torture as a symbol of their own self-fulfilment for us to emulate; innumerable boring Madonnas and babies holding out three fingers who seldom smiled; dark depictions of that terrible Friday afternoon; and artistic approbations of biblical events of god acting the bully as he smote someone or pressing the “reset” button on humanity by drowning almost every man woman and child.
Contrast that with the joie de vivre of the celebration of life, love and nature of the Impressionists and the stunning works that flooded Europe’s art world after the popes for ever lost their hold on it.
Literature? I shall only say three words: Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
The Catholic church, was the jailer of art, literature, philosophy and social freedom and still is to this day except that it is ignored even by the majority of its members. Where were the free universities, seats of learning and freedom of pursuit of excellence that Mr Caruana attributes to the church? Leonardo and Galileo were in constant fear for their lives; as was every teacher, scientist, medical and literary genius.
Humanity shall never know the entire bill of damage the Catholic church has wrought on mankind’s march forward.
Some we do know and are measurable insofar as they are benchmarks of callousness.
Where is the social philosophy of the Papal States resisting Universal Suffrage with Pius IX referring to it as a mad "charge at the abyss"?
Where is the human compassion in Pio Nono’s reply to the US Congress that slavery was not in conflict with the scriptures, quoting St Paul's words, which Christian slavers used as their imprimatur for slavery for 1500 years?
Where is the humanity of Pius XII making a ReichsKonkordat with Hitler including a part which stated the church will protect Christian Jews but will have nothing to say about other Jews?
Where is the social responsibility of Ratzinger and his stance on condoms vis-à-vis AIDS in Africa?
Where is the justice of the church taking so long to accept that child rape by clergy is not a sin but a crime?
Popes abused power for 1500 years and it was the Enlightenment that broke the shackles of religion from humanity. The rise of secularism has been the dénouement of religion for what it is and has been - a bane on humankind.
The internet will kill religion; but not the facet of internet Mr Caruana denigrates. In his sense of puerile, indoctrinated, blinkered argument we should credit the revolution and subsequent power of the press only with pornography and tabloids. Every free library attests that it was more than that.
In analogous fashion, the goodness of the internet benefits and augments exponentially the progress and knowledge of mankind.
The internet is now an immense array of brain power of all that is good in humanity giving access to all of every aspect of philosophical, scientific, medical and cultural state of the art cutting edge material.
Billions of ordinary and extraordinary people share ideas and thought for hours a day in their own homes, on a bus, anywhere; having access to the best minds and the best university lectures on earth.
Bronze Age fairy tales and untenable dogma evicted long ago from their comfortable seat in the gaps of knowledge, by knowledge, can only wallow in the dust and fossick through the bleached bones of ideas long dead.
Religious doctrine is the language of and for the ignorant and cannot compete against knowledge given freely, unstintingly, with no strings and in non-dogmatic fashion.
I have easily and comfortably rebutted every argument that Mr Caruana has presented without changing gear or raising a bead of sweat.
Unless he comes up with something intelligent, which I would welcome, I propose to end this string and adjourn.
He knows where to find my comments. I look forward with relish to his exercising the intellect and scholarship he claims to possess in the future; but of which I have seen no evidence thus far.
Andy Farrugia
Feb 22nd, 17:27
"I, on the other hand, can and shall punch holes into his logic without any effort.
I shall also let the readers decide which essay is the better quality in language, fact and argument; his or mine."
"I have easily and comfortably rebutted every argument that Mr Caruana has presented without changing gear or raising a bead of sweat.
Unless he comes up with something intelligent, which I would welcome, I propose to end this string and adjourn.
He knows where to find my comments. I look forward with relish to his exercising the intellect and scholarship he claims to possess in the future; but of which I have seen no evidence thus far."
Sheer, unadulterated arrogance. Continue to wallow in your iniquity, Flynn.
William Flynn
Feb 22nd, 21:53
Why, if it isn't Andy Farrugia using my words to fill space again because, as usual, he's got none of his own to offer in argument.
Andy Farrugia
Feb 23rd, 14:30
"using my words to fill space again" PRECISELY; that is all your words are fit for......filling space , apart from providing evidence of your utter dearth of anything remotely resembling substance. The only thing which stands out in your diatribes, like a sore thumb, is your repugnant nature.
Mr leo attard
Feb 21st, 20:54
@william flynn.........Mr flynn states: Science will dictate morality''. Such statements surely illustrate mr flynn's prejudice against religion. For all his harping on science, his arguments are his opinions and he provides no empirical evidence to back them up. Let's take his morality argument above -- it is obvious that science deals with explaining natural phenomena, finding answers to the physical / material world, improving technology to improve man's lifestyle. Science is not concerned with morality which is deals with ethics and man's relationship with man, with what is socially acceptabe-good and that which is unaceptable-evil. Mr Flynn, you predict the end of religion -- all I can say is that Stalin also predicted he would destroy God and executed those who believed in a religion --- he failed. I agree that there were misconceptions in christian religion but the church evolved (ex: no longer accepts limbo, evolution, etc) , but even science had its misconceptions and has evolved; at one time alchemists were somewhat like wizards and even believed they could change lead to gold; Einstein himself has been proven wrong in certain ideas....Science is essential and will continue to do so; but man is also a spiritual being and there will always be thos ewho will continue to go on believing in something ethereal whether it be a jesus, allah, buddha, or a jedi force or whatever!
William Flynn
Feb 22nd, 10:56
Mr Attard, I didn't mean that science shall define morality from a pulpit or from a catechism. Rather that as science in all disciplines progresses, it shall render possible previously impossible things. IVF and stem cell technology are good examples of this concept.
charles caruana
Feb 21st, 16:02
@ William Flynn
Again Mr Flynn, your obsessive hatred of religion leads you to embarrass yourself unnecessarily. I do not usually waste much time arguing with those whose comments easily betray they have not sufficient logical and cultural background to engage in serious argument. The most charitable and respectful answer to such is to suggest they complete their half baked education by reading and researching more about a subject they choose to blabber about. As for others, even more pretentious, proud and vulgar in their unacknowledged ignorance, who parade their little knowledge without even being aware of its danger for themselves, I do not even read their ravings, much less respond to it– eternal silence is the best answer to such non-entities.
You clearly show the limits, not just of your philosophical but also of your historical preparation in your statement ‘Religions germinate and thrive in fields of ignorance, superstition;’ Do you even know that the University is a Christian Mediaeval invention? Chartres Cathedral, Leonardo’s works of art and discoveries, Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Dante’s Divine Comedy – these according to your wise self are the fruits of religious ignorance and superstition. And those are just the tip of the iceberg. Why don’t you try to pull another one, Mr Flynn?
Your painfully naïve and simplistic theory of the power of the internet to kill religion flies in the face of facts. The internet fairly pullulates with billions of religious sites that are increasing at an exponential rate and that proportionally dwarf the number of atheist websites destined to remain a woeful minority everywhere.
Religion becoming extinct? That shows an abysmal ignorance of the latest findings of sociologists specialised in the subject who register a resurgence of religion everywhere, after three centuries of so called enlightenment. They have exploded the myth of inevitable and progressive secularisation to bits. I repeat, inform yourself better by researching serious studies, not just atheist pamphlets that remain at the mental level of the village atheists.
‘Theologist heroes’? You do not even know that of the two authors of ‘God is Back’, one is an atheist like your good self and the other a catholic, both working with the Economist, not exactly a theological publication, as you might perhaps know.
‘Proven facts.’ Though claiming to be an atheist, you are in fact a fanatical devotee of a pseudo religion called ‘Scientism’, and the deepest irony is that you are not even aware of its existence or what it means yet, though it enslaves your mind. Go look it up please. Wishful thinking like yours is a fantasy, not a fact, Mr Flynn.
Emma Xerri
Feb 21st, 22:31
Yes God is back because poverty is back. Due to the erosion of jobs and security and most of the middle class disappearing into poverty, Churches all over the world are seeing a resurgence. If people cannot get a fair chance in this life, Churches offer them the vain hope of a better one in the afterlife.A very useful tool for those who want to rule.
People flock to religion when things get hard but paradoxically, they tend to leave religion behind when they are well fed and happy. I would then say that religion has a vested interest in economic harships and poverty and that is why the whole lot of them are against birth control and women's rights since a low population means a better standard of living for all. It is not by chance that the Bishop is right there next to the King on the Chess board, they have been playing this game for their mutual gain for centuries. It just amazes me that people have not yet seen through this charade.
charles caruana
Feb 22nd, 09:32
@ Emma Xerri
Ms Xerri, it is amazing that you can't see through the passe marxist charade you are belatedly and anachronistically paddling. Even China and Russia have moved beyond your archaic categories of class warfare and religion as the opium of the people. And your feminism is a bit dated too - to which wave does it belong, first, second or third?History has left you far behind, Ms Xerri, wake up and say something new!
Emma Xerri
Feb 22nd, 23:01
@Charles Caruana
You said "Even China and Russia have moved beyond your archaic categories of class warfare and religion as the opium of the people".
But of course, because both China and Russia are no longer Communist societies. Their government has been co-opted and turned into a totallitarian feudal societies. In the case of China, it is the workhorse of the Corporate West where slaves toil for long hours and meagre wages (some have been drivien to suicide, but that of course is hardly reported in the shill corporate Media in the West). So it stands to reason that religion has been rehabilitated in these countries. It is a great tool to keep people in check and working in misery in hope of reward in the afterlife. I am sure they were advised to take religion out of the mothballs as a handy tool for the rulers.
Emma Xerri
Feb 22nd, 23:54
@Charles Caruana
Sorry to keep on bothering you but since you mentioned it, I believe it is your precious, precious Catholic church/faith that hails from the second and third wave (centuries). How modern is that.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Emma Xerri
Feb 23rd, 17:27
@Charles Caruana
I have noticed that my first response to your attack on my comment was not printed.
Marx is even more relevenat today especially how he correctly forecasted how Capitalism would eventually destroy its own power-base, the middle class.
Mr. Caruana, you wake up and learn something new.
Andy Farrugia
Feb 23rd, 20:07
Ms Xerri, just in case you hadn't noticed, Marxism has long been dispatched to the dustbins of history. Try to catch up with the times.
C Muscat
Feb 21st, 15:26
Religion is like going from one town to another...you may opt to go on foot or you may opt to go by bus. the church is the bus whether you like to arrive on foot or on the bus it is up to each and everyone.
Christ is like the sun, it is there if you like to sunbathe it is up to you if you like to stay in the cold it is up to each and every individual.
Mind you I am not a priest or anyone in particular and for me you may do whatever you like; I know that my Christ is there and he guided me and still guides me and to tell you the truth if he guides anyone else I am losing nothing.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 21st, 01:04
Precious Catholic identity. What, as opposed to a rubbish Hindu, Sikh, Jewish one?!
Some comments remind me of the pc circus of the day, no animals but acrobats and acrobatics, galore. And a lot of playing with fire. The Circus of the Sun I think the call it. With a big beginning, banging away, and eventually, the mother of all eclipses. A damp squib.
At the risk of embarrassing myself as I quote only myself, and not something spurious by definition, that tells me what I want to hear, I would say the trouble with religion/s is that they all think they are the bee's knees. Crusades are the track record, and then some more. Occasional iconoclasms that suit the time of the year, in both the West and the East. Very Byzantine 'cloak and dagger' the effects of which are felt to this day. And by the time the billions have learned (or been forced to learn that Jesus lives - it's happened before and it could happen again) to embrace, and be embraced by, Jesus, god only knows what will happen. After all they all clamour that their god is THE one and only, however misguidedly our spiritual leaders tell us that there is only one god, thus assuaging our fears and allaying our anxieties, quite implying that we can all pray together and in peace, and what's the problem! Convince me! So whatever happens, it won't be without a fight and a few whimpers. And some battles can be won without the victor lifting a ring finger.
The moral. I believe it would be best if all, irrespective of belief-system, made sure that everybody had enough to eat (because an empty stomach can be swayed, and manipulated every which way). The billions can then bow to whichever god they want, but in private. And truly great minds can continue doing what they do best, using their god-given brains. Until such times......and the times are here, right now, this very minute.
Mr. Cowie, might you not be puzzled for reasons that have nothing to do with my not-so-dense comments?
I admit that I am not one to profusely compliment others. I am not easily impressed although I find the toothless smile of a baby in a pram very rewarding, possibly because I now have something in common with said child. Darbtejn insiru tfal, and all that (second childhood for puzzled non-Maltesers). However, I did acknowledge Mr. Pace O'Shea lengthy comment, by inference his effort, his religiosity(even if said content is vaguely familiar to me like a dream from a distant past). But why would anyone be puzzled if I did not, in so many words, compliment the gentleman on the content of the comment? I am an atheist for god's sake!(one kindly doc from the provinces would pick on that god mention. Go(d) figure!). And Gerry, I may not have extolled the Pace comment in words written or implied but grateful I am nevertheless. As I am for all comments on the subject, and yours - an ordinary man one can tell - in particular and even the ones from the impressively - for the wrong reasons - erudite do not go unnoticed, for their style if nothing much else. I was sayin', I am grateful because comments here afford me insights into the mindset of those who are still where I once was(ish), where they will be for the foreseeable future and beyond, this side or that, ungrowing and stunted. Like a Damien Hirst creation in aspic but less attractive, and goggle-eyed.. I will never go there again - la mmur fejn dari nidneb - and these comments reinforce time and again why I mustn't, could not, would not, shouldn't. god forbid that I should!
Mr Joseph Carmel Chetcuti
Feb 20th, 23:46
A most simplistic rendition of Malta and the Maltese. Anyone who thinks that his or her nation has the qualities (exclusively or to a much higer degree than other countries) that Pace O'Shea refers to is a fool. The Roman Catholic Church is a dinosaur and the blame for this lies almost entirely on the stubborn and conceited hierarchy. Secularism is not only important but essential to the dignity of men and women. That some prefer to put it at war with religion is to their greater detriment because religion will end up losing. It must lose. It will lose. Secularism does not preclude people from behaving like true Christians. What it does is to stop people from using the instruments of the state to push their religion onto others. The trouble with Christianity in Malta is that true Christians are few and far in between.
William Flynn
Feb 20th, 22:47
Mr Charles Caruana
I thank Mr Caruana for demonstrating the usual Catholic apologist vice of making wild assumptions. I could be sitting next to him in a bus or a plane and he wouldn’t know me let alone know what I've read and haven't read. If he believes my intellect to be low, perhaps he may care to demonstrate this in logical argument.
He's like the naughty schoolboy who throws a couple of rocks at the door and runs. He delivers no logical argument but throws in a couple of names.
Why is the end of religion such a far away dream? Extinction of religion has been happening for thousands of years. Some snuff out quickly while others die slowly. Extinction is what religions do best. Religions germinate and thrive in fields of ignorance, superstition; knowledge and science is the weed poison that kills them root and branch.
The Catholic religion has been dying since the enlightenment and its disease is terminal.
The power of a tsunami of increasing knowledge with millions of minds all over the world quietly connected through technology will snuff out untenable hoarse bombast of loud religious metaphysical belief.
Religion won’t die only for the reason that they who preach goodness and humility practice evil and lust for financial wealth and power. (I wonder does Mr Caruana see any evidence of financial wealth at all in religion and the empty churches; does he see the history of it; or does he believe I invented this?)
But religion will also become extinct because its metaphysical beliefs are out of sync with reality and proven science.
What Mr Caruana’s theologist heroes are promoting is just another retooling of the same old myth, a hasty run for the last seat for god in the gap of scientific knowledge; there is no place for myths in the modern world; only proven facts. Proven facts will gradually remove all seats from the gaps.
Religious Bronze Age mumbo-jumbo cannot possibly survive as a paradigm for human behaviour, ethics, and progress in the 21st century.
Francis Grech
Feb 20th, 22:07
Very well said Francis Sammut I agree with you %100, Malta to-day is not the same as it was 30 40 years ago these days no body gives a damn about any one else exept them selves greed is very rampant as well you only had to get involved with a local buisness man he will tell you a price for some thing usless and you try to compromise and he want budge one cent his attitude will be you,want the item you pay his price take it or leave it ,you walk in to any government departement and no body take any notice of you you could be in there for hours on end to get served especially at the license department at Floriana (what a shame the way it is being run)you can go on and on for ever,so is this the way to being being a catholic.sic
Gerry Cowie
Feb 20th, 21:05
Francis Sammut is right that the truth hurts! The writer of the article is not saying that Catholic Malta is the only good place on earth nor that others are not equally as good. Reading his article is he simply reaffirming this particular aspect of the faith of Malta which some secularists/athiests/humanists (see below) cannot cope with. Malta is unique in many ways. Nobody is saying that those without a religious belief are by definition bad! But there are those who wish to see religion removed from the shores of the Maltese Islands. I am therefore encouraged to support the writer of the article who admits to the shortcomings of the people and makes it clear that they are by no means perfect.
Francis Sammut
Feb 20th, 18:38
We are generous, hard working, humble, careful with our money, welcoming, peaceful and ''unaggressive'' (sic). And very friendly, I might add! Let me tell you something, Mr.Pace O'Shea. Many a time I visit a small village in Wales, UK. Many of the people there are not particularly religious. Their kids do not attend any Church doctrine teachings like we have here. Many are not even Catholics. In fact it is safe to say that the British, in general, are not very religious - and yet one will find all the good traits that you sir mentioned above - and more! For instance what happened to courtesy towards each other? I'm sorry, the fact is we tend to act selfishly towards each other, many a time. A few examples will suffice: four people walking on the pavement coming towards you, they see you but pretend they don't.They occupy the width of the sidewalk and expect you to move down to the road! There's no sorry nothing. You're nobody. Another. Entering a shop, bank whatever, I'm following someone inside, the door is slammed right on my face. No apology, nothing! Many times I keep the door open for those I notice coming in to shop or be served. They pass me by and not even a thank you! And what about keeping the queue? I don't think I have to comment. These might seem trivial to some but the fact is that it isn't. And I'm very scared when I find myself in an argument with someone, because let's face it, one never knows - in a minute I might be looking at a barrel of a gun! Now about ......the strenght of our many marriages........and the low level of crime! Well, from what we see and hear, I don't know about these two things. Thirty, forty years ago, maybe but now, I doubt it! Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of good people in Malta and Gozo, (are they not found in every country?) but to try and pretend that this is something that happens only in Malta, is false, in my opinion. Now I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from those who might disagree, which is only fair - and maybe there could be those who are hurt by the truth? What we need is to have a good look in the mirror and accept our 'dark side' and try to rectify that which is bad in many of us.
Ken Cowan
Feb 21st, 00:23
Glad you said it, Mr Sammut
I lived for 30 years in France; approximately 70% of the people there say they do not believe in God; but they are FAR more polite than the average person here. People work well, are efficient, the roads get paved and swept, and the average worker is highly competent and takes a certain pride in his work. I also find that the French tend to be far more knowledgeable ... and am beginning to think that one of the reasons is that they are a curious people. But in places where the Church holds sway, the first thing one is taught is to OBEY, rather than pose too many questions. This, in my estimation, results in apathy, ACCEPTANCE of bad situations and a lack of inquisitiveness. Need I say more?
Gerry Cowie
Feb 20th, 17:36
Joe Xuereb puzzles us with his comments. He makes assumptions about my comments without knowing me at all. Why he feels this article is redundant I know not. Why not praise the article?
Well spoken, Charles Caruana! Now Mr Flynn will go away and dig out a couple of internet articles and books which appear to support his wishful thinking and write another diatribe against religion! Thing is that he will not tell us "in plain English" the true reason for his distaste in particular for the Catholic faith.
Kenneth Cassar
Feb 21st, 14:04
Gerry, you persistently make (wrong) assumptions about all atheists, secularists and humanists, and dare not reply when challenged to back your assumptions with facts. And yet, you are surprised on what you perceive to be Joe Xuereb's assumptions about you?
charles caruana
Feb 20th, 16:14
Mr Flynn, why do you love so much to embarrass yourself. Your opinions about the relationship between science and religion are woefully amateurish. Why not read a philosopher like Alvin Plantinga about the subject before you venture in public with your naive wishful thinking about it, though I doubt you are up to its intellectual level. And again about your dreamt of disappearance of religion, why not read a book by an expert who has, unlike you, conducted serious research on the subject, namely, John Micklethwait in his 'God Is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith Is Changing the World'. Only please, don't read it if you have a weak heart. Flynn, millennia after you and I have vanished off the face of this earth, billions will be adoring Christ, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
Joe Xuereb
Feb 20th, 13:55
Excellent article, as in excellently looooong. Alas! totally redundant.
Quote: Was the mission of the Church only intended to be limited to a spiritual well-being of the people or was it intended to enter the fabric of society and build a borderless nation? Are we as Catholics only to be Catholics in the spiritual and devotional domain or should we encrypt our values in every aspect of our lives – be them political, fiscal entertainment or a relationship.
By society, and borderless nation, I presume Mr. Shea means a global society, one and all following Christ's teaching. A veritable Utopia, in other words.. Dream on, Mr. O'Shea, dream on.
Quote: In a world that has come a long way and that carries a very heavy baggage of experiences, the Church can easily turn into a dinasour insitution that looks like something of the past. It can, on the other hand, rejuvenate itself. It can prove to society that it not only fulfils a spiritual role but a social one as well; if its members did not consider themselves as pilgrims in an alien world but co-creators in an awesome universe.
A world that carries a very heavy baggage of experiences, you say Mr. O'Shea. You're not kidding?! But if ALL learned to follow Jesus and his exhortations, all will be fine. But not without yet more very heavy baggage of experience and conflicts, I am sure you would agree.
@Mr. Cowie, Catholic Malta - as it is or as you would interpret it or wish it - will see you through to the end of your days (while I am well out of it). So why are you fretting Gerry. It is not like you were a twenty-two year old with years of battling ahead of you. The least you could do is for you to come and shore up the Church in Malta, or prop up what is left (still considerable in spite of divorce referendum result) of it from the front line so to speak. I reckon that for a devout Catholic Malta is still a decent place to live and die. .
Tommy Vella
Feb 20th, 18:17
By society, and borderless nation, I presume Mr. Shea means a global society, one and all following Christ's teaching. A veritable Utopia, in other words.. Dream on, Mr. O'Shea, dream on.
You presume wrong if by global society you presume one and all following Christ. The Catholic Church is the ONLY global society. I do not know whether you have ever been in St Peter's Square when there is some function and you see and feel people from every nation under the sun talking, acting, believing as one. I got to experience the same feeling on many a World Youth Day where the feeling of peace, love, solidarity, joy make all those present, total strangers to each other, empathise with each other because together they all form just one body. Let science and reason (without faith) try in all futulity to generate that kind of brotherhood.
Christ never intended his Church to encompass all humanity directly. The paradigm he gives for his church is the light, the salt and the yeast. Think about them. The light bulb is very small compared to the room it illuminates bt it serves the whole room; we throw in only a pinch of salt in the saucepan but it flavors all the food; the yeast is a very small amount compared to the dough but it makes the whole mixture fluffy and airy.
What Christ envisaged was a small amount of Christians, real Christians like the martyrs among others, who by their very life will serve all humanity by showing the true reason of life, by sowing hope where there is despair, faith where there is doubt, and love where there is hatred, not through mere talking, but by acting as Christians even to the ultimate sacrifice of their life, as many have already done.
William Flynn
Feb 21st, 01:04
Tommy Vella
I would say that the number of Christians who made the "ultimate sacrifice" would be outnumbered by several hundred thousand to one by those who were killed by Christians through genocide by Catholic conquest, Catholic Fascist and Nazi regimes, or just plain ignorant religious oppression.
William Flynn
Feb 20th, 12:21
Religion will fail because what holds true in the religious sense in Rome won’t hold true in Delhi or Beijing; but in the scientific sense it’s just the opposite. If it’s scientific it will work everywhere.
This is never truer than the technology which has made billions of human brains into a unique and immensely powerful array of thought the likes of which doesn’t exist anywhere else in a vast area of the immediate known universe.
This enormous collective intellectual power shall defeat religion for religion has no answer against science because it is greater than the “god of the gaps” idea which fails every scientific test.
It is science that will dictate morality not religion. Science has the credentials; religion has mumbo jumbo and dogma. Without the fear of the inquisitor, the pope or the high priest controlling the hands holding the sword and the torch of the brainwashed, religion hasn’t a hope; without the fear religion is less than nothing.
Science has no fear of the unknown; it embraces it and meets it head on intellectually. Religion, unable to deal with the unknown, conjures it up into scenarios of fear, punishment and reward.
Science is an intellectual discussion; religion is a mind-numbing dogmatic sermon.
The god idea, we now know, was a hypothesis for all that early man couldn’t explain. As science has explained almost all those things for which the god hypothesis was required, it has made the god hypothesis redundant.
Religion is not precious at all but a cheap and plentiful commodity limited only by the imagination and the gullibility of the ignorant. There are literally thousands of made-up gods.
Religion shall die for ignorance has failed and cannot survive; it's inevitable.
Gerry Cowie
Feb 20th, 10:56
Excellent article.
Very sadly but not surprisingly there is a small undercurrent of secularist/athiest/humanist thought - in particular from Australia - which would like to claim that Malta is not a Catholic country and that secularism should rule supreme.
Happily, Catholic Malta roundly rejects such preposterous aims!
William Flynn
Feb 20th, 11:51
One small undercurrent from England became a ripple and disappeared with the astounding rejection by the Maltese people of interference by bishops in their private lives at the last referendum legalizing one of the greatest taboos of Catholicism - fault-tree divorce authorized by the secular state not a celibate man with a long mediaeval title.
In actual fact Malta did not roundly reject secularism; what Malta really did is reject Catholic precepts, teaching, Catholic bishops’ guidance and therefore Catholicism.
Franco Farrugia
Feb 20th, 21:14
One small thing: Malta is NOT a 'Catholic country'. No country is 'Catholic'.
A few months ago, the divorce referendum showed 'Malta' for what it is. Not 'Catholic'.
Mr Joseph Carmel Chetcuti
Feb 20th, 23:53
Dear Cowie, to your long list of secularist, atheist and humanist, you must not forget to add agnostic and structuralist (look this one up). With people like you supporting the Church, it is no wonder that the Church is in such a bad state. By the way, what have you got against Australians? Why do you feel so inadequate against those from Australia? If you think that what you despise is limited to Australia and not Malta, you surely are living in the land of the fairies. Have you not heard of the referendum results on divorce?