Lies have become an easy tool for people who believe the end justifies the means to achieve what they want, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech has warned.

The introduction of divorce ravaged the nature of marriage

Speaking in Nadur where he celebrated Mass to mark the feast of St Peter and St Paul, Mgr Grech said: “Humans have exchanged God’s truth – the objective truth – with a lie.”

He said current era is characterised by “philosophical anarchy” where people are living under a “dictatorship of relativism” that fosters uncertaint and confusion.

“After celebrating the funeral of reason and religion, man is at a crossroads: he either organises his own funeral or gives birth to a new civility that respects the objective truth and recognises God,” he said.

With individuality becoming an absolute value, right or wrong depended on the desires or needs of the moment. It was a pity, he said, that “natural use” had changed “to use against nature”.

The introduction of divorce, he pointed out, ravaged the nature of marriage as indissolubility was a value of a natural marriage.

“The same demand for same-sex relationships to be put on an equal footing with marriage goes against nature,” he said.

Mgr Grech said the conception of life should also respect nature’s process and if this was not respected society would be confronted with other ethical dilemmas.

“Facing this reality, only God can offer a future. The future depends on our faith in God,” he said.

“It is a fact that our people’s faith is waning due to secularisation, as well as other causes within the Church’s internal goings-on, such as the lack of coherency in Christians, as well as all types of abuse, which I condemn without any reservation.

“I hope that throughout this year of faith there will be a serious commitment from parish communities to discover God’s beauty.”