The Archbishop today urges Malta to adopt what he calls ‘The Samuel Perspective’, after the little boy who lost his eyesight to cancer and touched the hearts of many with his positive outlook on life.

The 11-year-old was interviewed in a video clip for L-Istrina last Monday, Boxing Day, demonstrating what to many was extraordinary wisdom and resilience for someone so young.

“I would call it ‘The Samuel Perspective’: that resilience rooted in hope and joy in life whatever the adverse circumstances, whatever the failures, whatever the downside of things this side of heaven,” writes Archbishop Charles Scicluna in an opinion piece in today's The Sunday Times of Malta.

Samuel was introduced to Mgr Scicluna and political leaders through a letter and video sent to them by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

The Archbishop says Samuel teaches one to stop and “listen to our hearts”. He refers to “real-life stories of suffering, hardship, slavery and injustice”, and calls on readers to stop and think about “what human toil, what market systems lie behind the status symbols of our lifestyle, from the coffee we drink to the laptops we use, to the florid GDP and positive credit ratings that make us proud”.

READ: The wisdom of 'the Samuel perspective'

It is not the first time that Mgr Scicluna has made remarks critical of the desire for enrichment and material possessions in relation to the local situation.

He ends his piece with a call for the adoption of ‘The Samuel Perspective’, the perspective “of those who have the courage and the humility to go beyond the need for instant gratification and have the wisdom to enjoy wealth and opportunity with a deep, generous sense of solidarity with the future generations”.