Is it not possible for the Church in Malta to come out in less strident tones against advances in medically-assisted fertility procedures?

It is unfortunately beginning to sound like another potentially negative Galileo-like episode in a line of fundamental clashes between the Church and science and with more liberal north European thought.

Headlines claiming the Magisterium is with Christ make it sound as if some newly discovered historical records of Christ’s unequivocal pronouncements on assisted fertility have now emerged.

I seem also to remember religious doubts about the correctness of organ transplantation when Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant.

As the body was believed to belong to God and not to man, doctors and patients may have had no right to usurp such powers involving removing an organ from one body to place it in another.

Fortunately, we overcame such initial doubts about organ and tissue transplantation.

The Church needs to keep in mind that we cannot turn the philosophical clock back to the 20th or 19th centuries. It also needs to be more appreciative of the increasing and irreversible multi-culturalism and liberalism of Western countries, and that at least half the world’s population do not believe its Magisterium’s claim to divine direction.