A young man called Alex Vella Gera has done the unthinkable. He has written a strongly-graphic short story called Li Tkisser Sewwi in a student magazine called Ir-Realtà, which was subsequently banned by the rector at the instigation of the University chaplain.

What surprises me most about the issue is that people are writing in expressing shock and disbelief that this retrograde action should be allowed to happen in 2009! At the same time I will never cease to be amazed at how confused some people's minds are and how devoid of common sense or logic. I am referring to the recent case in Italy where the crucifixes in state schools have been ordered to be removed by the European Court of Human Rights. A whole palaver has been unleashed: in Malta too where, predictably, fear that the same thing might happen because we are part of the EU has prompted the great and the good to make sanctimonious and glib statements for reasons best known to them.

I am glad that people are taking the time and trouble to express their disapproval; at least it's good to know that some people are still intellectually alive and kicking. However, it is my duty to point out that in both cases our Constitution renders any preoccupation about the removal of crosses in our schools as unnecessary and the banning of a magazine as predictably unavoidable.

The Constitution of Malta states the following: The religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion. The authorities of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church have the duty and the right to teach which principles are right and which are wrong. Religious teaching of the Roman Catholic Apostolic faith shall be provided in all state schools as part of compulsory education. That cannot be clearer.

People who are afraid that the Italy ruling by the ECHR has set a precedent need not worry one little bit and the editorial board of Ir-Realtà should accept the ban as a matter of course. In case it has slipped past you it also negates any attempt to introduce divorce, abortion, bio-ethics, same-sex marriage or anything that remotely goes against Catholic teaching.

As far as the crucifix issue is concerned, the Vatican is miffed and Curias all over the world are at sixes and sevens as how best to devise a damage-limitation strategy. If Italy is constitutionally secular then I am afraid that the European Court is absolutely correct. This is why Archbishop Paul Cremona's declaration that should the situation arise in Malta one day it will be his duty along with Maltese Christians to see to it that the crucifix retains its "place in public places" (sic) is unnecessary because till our Constitution is changed that issue will never arise and if and when it does it will be a total waste of time as there they will stay till at least two thirds of our parliamentarians decide that independence from Rome is vastly overdue. Not in our lifetime.

The main raison d'être of our University seems to be churning out graduates like a sausage factory. What sort of seat of learning is this where free thought is not encouraged and the KSU has had Graffiti banned from campus because of a technicality? Is there no campus life that germinates original ideas? Are we merely producing conformists in blue jeans? Who is questioning the meaning of life? Where are the dreamers, the poets, the writers, the artists who make any University campus a unique experience; possibly the one time in their future drab and grey John Major-ish lives that they would have really lived life to the full?

University should not just be about books, thesis and lectures but about a meaningful translation of academia into the reality of life. This is the place wherein our future leaders are being educated and prepared for life. Do these students not question their existence? Do they accept the System? I don't at the venerable age of 53 even less than when I was 19. Where are the student protests? Where are the declarations and the demonstrations? Is it possible that there are no angry young men, and women, to shake the place up? Are there no intellectual dreamers to inspire the sensibilities of others to sparkle?

It is a sad day for us all that things like this banning has been allowed to happen and it sets a tremendously dangerous precedent too. What is next? The Inquisition?

Malta is not a secular state, repeat after me: We are not a secular state. Christianity as preached exclusively by the Roman Catholic Church is entrenched in our Constitution as the religion of Malta and there it will stay for many generations to come giving politicos the excuse to do nothing about a great many issues that affect our daily lives whether or not they believe in them.

Ergo there is no case in Malta to remove crucifixes from classrooms in state schools and there they will remain till our Constitution is changed.

Meanwhile, censorship and thought control, whether tacit or outright, will continue to stunt our intellectual development for reasons that have little or nothing to do with Christianity as such.

kzt@onvol.net