Many people have already written letters in support of Archbishop Paul Cremona following the criticism of his leadership by certain members of the clergy. However, as a member of the Church I would like to add my contribution to this debate.

First and foremost, may I remind everyone that it is us Catholics who make up the Church, not only the clergy, so in order to engage in constructive criticism we should probably look to ourselves first.

Secondly, with regard to the comments about the administration of the Church in Malta, Cremona was selected by Pope Benedict to run our Church. What I found shocking was the fact that this controversy was initiated by none other than three intellectual priests who, above all, were personally appoin­ted, and I understand, fully trusted by the Archbishop himself.

Incidentally, these priests took a vow of obedience to the Archbishop. Have they forgotten what this means? While many might argue that what they said or wrote does not amount to disobedience, as Catholics we believe that ‘Caritas Christi urget nos’, (‘The love of Christ urges us’). May I therefore ask what kind of charity motivated them to act publicly, when they could have discussed these issues internally? They had all the time to do so and had easy access to the Archbishop, on a daily basis.

This, to me, sounds nothing more than a manipulative action taking advantage of the fact that our Church leader is indisposed. Instead of rallying around him and offering full support in order to make sure that the organisation functions properly, these priests seem to have created a scenario that puts in doubt not only the leadership question but also, unfortunately, giving cause for uncommitted Catholics to pounce at this opportunity to criticise the Church.

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