The Maltese do not need to travel thousands of miles to do voluntary work because it is knocking on their doors with a plea to help those in need of solidarity, according to Bishop Charles Scicluna.
“When we will meet Jesus at the end of time He will not tell us how many statues we carried along our roads but He will tell us: ‘I was a migrant and you helped me’. This is a test. I hope to God that we will do our best to pass it,” he said.
Mgr Scicluna was speaking to Times of Malta following the statement issued by the bishops earlier this week on the Government’s statement that it had been considering all options, including repatriation, of irregular migrants.
Asked why the bishops were not as vociferous on migration as they were on other issues that affect life, such as abortion and euthanasia, Mgr Scicluna said he believed the statement gave the essentials: that it was our mission, as a nation, to help those in need while respecting the dignity of the human person.
“We’re talking about life and the dignity of the human person. Being vociferous is the way of putting it.
“It’s not about shouting or using harsh words. I think the statement of the bishops is very clear where it appealed to the Government to continue in the best spirit of hospitality that is part of our history and our DNA,” he said.
He explained that the Maltese seemed “uncomfortable coping with hundreds of people coming without invitation” but comfortable with people arriving on cruise liners and having “very light coloured skin”.
“These people who come unexpectedly (across) the Mediterranean do take us by surprise. People landing on our shores unexpectedly are a wake-up call to our hearts.
“It is difficult to cope with it and we bishops have to acknowledge that but this is a compelling cry for help.
“We cannot ignore it. Our response has to be humane because we will lose our own humanity. Our response has to be Christian because, otherwise, we are not truly Christians.”
Referring to the Government’s insistence for solidarity by other European countries, Mgr Scicluna said he did not believe that by doing so the country was “shrugging its responsibility”.
“We cannot write this off and anything we can do will not dream it away. We are here to support the Government because it has a great burden and a great responsibly.
“But we will do whatever it takes (as bishops) to help our people understand that this is our call of duty, the call to be really close to our neighbour.
“We don’t need to travel thousands of miles to do voluntary work because voluntary work is knocking on our doors.
“This is, in a nutshell, what we bishops tried to say in our statement,” he said.