I refer to the letter by Fr David Muscat entitled ‘Authentic Christian Democrats’, (The Sunday Times of Malta, April 17).

Fr Muscat favours the crea­tion of a new political party for Maltese Catholics, “led by politicians of true Catholic faith, unafraid to show themselves as such”.

Fr Muscat seems to have lost sight of the Nationalist Party as the party of Religio et Patria that “passed into history”.

To be fair, Fr Muscat is fully aware that his is a dream, and that he is told (rightly so) that “this dream of his is in vain”. However, he still insists that “it should not be difficult to put together a party comprising a handful of individuals whose voice cries in the wilderness”.

I believe part of the problem lies in the fact that the Catholic community is in distress due to lack of drive at various levels of the Church hierarchy in the recent past.

A number of conferences in Todi, Italy, organised by Italian Catholic Associations, highlighted that today’s crisis among Catholics is not due to a lack of Catholic politicians but in the Catholic ambience itself. Recent surveys point to a worrying trend among Maltese Catholics, particularly the younger generation.

A new party for Catholics would represent only a small percentage of followers, making it insignificant.

The other problem lies in Malta’s political reality. It is generally accepted that several Christian concepts, including the person being at the centre of political decisions, have become accepted by all. Christian social teaching has therefore been embraced by both the PN and the Labour Party.

Why is Fr Muscat surprised that the PN has opened its doors to increased civil rights? Is he aware of Pope Francis’s drive to create a more inclusive Church in the name of divine mercy?

Today’s PN, under the leadership of a practising Catholic, Simon Busuttil, aims to embrace all members of Maltese society, and is inspired by Christian social teaching. In the PN’s Statement of Basic Policy, published in 1986, we find that “the Christian idea of the dignity of man is the basis of all the Nationalist Party’s policies. To fulfil the ideal of each person’s right to full development, the PN guarantees individual freedom in a framework that treats the rights of all persons as equal.”

In my opinion it would be wrong to ghettoise the Catholic vote into one exclusive party. This would be most harmful to the Church itself.

The PN is a modern democratic party true to its historic basic values, which it will continue to defend.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.