I refer to the letter by Joe Zammit, ‘Archbishop Scicluna’s principles’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, March 22), in reply to my letter the week before.

We are talking about two distinct issues. The first is the use of contraceptives within marriage. The other, however, is far, more serious. What are we to do with the problem of long-standing stable divorcees, possibly with offspring, yearning for the Sacrament?

Slamming the door does not solve the problem, nor does quoting judgementally from the Catechism of the Church. What then?

The Saturday before last, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech, in a masterly sober and reflective homily from Ta’ Pinu church, elaborated – rather obliquely, admittedly – to the latter thorny problem.

He was wise enough not to be simplistic in his analysis. But perhaps his implied reference to Pope Francis’s famously rhetorical question, “Who am I to judge?” may open the door towards a deeper and a more sensitively-tender response.

Having said this, we must be wary not to trivialise the Sacrament.

If these issues were to be settled by merely referring to the Catechism, then I dare say October’s Bishops’ Synod might as well be called off, which happily is not the case.