Tuesday’s front page photo was entitled Celebrating the Assumption: it did not have too many Marian features!
I would like to highlight that the fact the revellers were in St George’s Square could not be camouflaged completely in the photo. The choice of this location must remain a great “mystery there is not even any focus on the two statues of Our Lady there.
I do not know whether anyone noticed that the one-pager surveying Gozo in summer a few weeks back had a prominent photo of the same situation from a different angle, ironically resulting in a full view of St George’s Basilica (all reference to which was left out in the article, thus easily misleading readers into thinking that it is the cathedral!)
This anomalous state of affairs is seemingly beyond the powers of the authorities (civic, administrative and ecclesiastical) to eliminate, in spite of high-flown promises.
Thus, tensions unnecessarily run high, surely reducing the possible effectiveness of pastoral efforts during the rest of the year. Although the Victoria external festas are officially outside the control of the respective archpriest, specific collections during Mass are made monthly. The relevance of the Bishop’s letter read everywhere on Sunday instead of the homily is thus considerably reduced.