With reference to Jacqueline Calleja’s letter ‘Created for each other’, the confinement of religious faith and its values to the purely private sphere may have come about because of the excessive emphasis on, and wrong implementation of, the much vaunted Church and State separation policy. For the man in the street this could mean that religion has no place in the public arena or that morality derived from religion should not be permitted to shape our laws as in fact happened when the divorce and civil union bills were enacted.

Secularists managed to monopolise the shared space of society with their own lay views.

Another reason for the moral decadence could be the feel-good factor and social progress engaged in by our society. I read in an English paper that it is not Marx that dented the Christian heritage there but Marks and Spencer.

That great steps have been taken towards the betterment of our national economy and standard of living cannot be denied but we are still a nation of festoons, statues, band marches, meetings and fireworks. In the meantime we have neglected our appreciation of the moral and human values sustaining our Christian heritage dating back two millenniums.

The fabric of the nation is splitting at the seams, its precious nucleus – our moral core – is being ruptured.

Let’s hope and pray that with immediate effect the Church and State relationship is more orientated towards Catholic moral and religious convictions.

The Mater et Megistra is certainly a most experienced connoisseur of human and spiritual needs and exigencies and its expert advice should never be ignored.