A minority of noisy malcontents are dissatisfied with articles (1) and (2) of the Constitution of Malta. Both articles are statements of fact because they are about the traditional religious affiliation of the Maltese nation for centuries past and about our national flag as desired by our legal representatives, reflecting the wish of the nation at the time when Malta became a republic.

It cannot be disputed that the two articles do not infringe any recognised Universal Fundamental Human Right.

Article 2 recognises the obvious historical fact that Catholicism is the traditional religion of the State and that this has been so for centuries past. By no stretch of the imagination can it be asserted that it interferes with the free choice and the open practice of all other religions – not even with the brash practice of an aggressive atheism in open provocation of the practitioners of all deist faiths.

The only imposition is that being attempted by atheists, secularists, humanists, etc. to restrict the right of believers in God to receive instruction from their religious leaders about what is right and what is wrong in the same way that atheists promote their unbelief. In Malta, there is a functioning operational separation of Church from State with no ‘fatwas’ and no ecclesiastics in Parliament. All lay legislators are elected by secret vote under universal suffrage according to the free choice of the voters and, once elected, they can legislate freely according to, or even against, their electoral promises.

The only imposition is the one that is being brashly attempted by unbelievers who discriminate against all religions by suppressing the right to teach and to form opinions in the same way as all other pressure groups do, no matter how small and how outlandish.