I feel sorry for that vociferous minority that groans, grumbles and pontificates in offensive language against religious principles that the Maltese have believed and practised all their life. Their harangues are systematically directed against the Holy Father of the Catholic Church. Even the very Church bells draw their annoyance. Most irreverent is their wilful attack on prayer.

Purposely, they give outrageous interpretations, bordering on blasphemy, offending people and their beliefs.

They twist and turn efficacious prayers into erroneous political and historical interpretations to obscure the truth. Little do they remember that Malta’s survival rested on prayer or religious devotion.

Holy Mary and other saints are Malta’s patrons, the sublime figures of every parish. Their intercession is proved historically, traditionally and miraculously. They intercede when calamities strike. The relief from the plagues, the arrival of the convoy of Santa Marija are recorded in the unchallenged annals and in the belief of all survivors like me.

We do not doubt; we do not cast aspersions on our experiences; we do not play the fools that we know better, our Faith is not weak. We have not changed the indelible marks of our birth, our beliefs. We have not changed to new fangled ideologies; we treasure the answers to our ardent prayers. Prayers not coincidences saved from invasion and from starvation to emerge victorious over Nazism.

If only sceptics realise that prayer and meditation arepsychologically effective. They transport the perturbed mind obsessed with erroneous beliefs to a realm of peace and goodness. The Maltese ignore false prophets. They flock to the churches; they celebrate religious festivities; they love the Holy Father. They are oblivious of errant knaves who try to steer them away from the true path of life.

Unfortunately we know little about Maltese goodness: “The good is oft interred with their bones but the evil that men do lives after them.”