Striving for reconciliation would be futile if not based on the truth, social justice and not blessed by the Lord, Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna said in his New Year’s Eve homily.

Celebrating mass at St John’s Co-Cathedral, he said: “it is not outdated to turn to God for our protection and for our guidance. Let us recognise God as our creator and saviour. The Lord who created us, loves us dearly. He will not betray us, neither will he fail us.”

Mgr Scicluna urged society to ponder whether it had “boarded the speed train” to a brand of secularism that shunned God saying that the country’s Christian identity was not a threat to freedom of conscience.

 “Is it not perhaps opportune to ask ourselves whether in the name of secularisation we may have boarded the speed train to a certain secularism that shuns God and disdains his guidance as a perceived hindrance to our utopian dreams of liberal progress,” he asked.

Bisho Scicluna said the national anthem, which was a prayer to God, represented an “admirable synthesis” of a nation-state where faith did not hinder religious freedom and freedom of conscience.

Mgr Scicluna thanked God for decades of democratic governance and applauded the “many worthy politicians of different views” who made this possible through their “energy and prowess”.

He also thanked God for Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona’s pastoral stewardship of the Church. His “humble kindness”, he said, brought warmth to so many hearts.

Mgr Cremona resigned from archbishop earlier this year, citing exhaustion, after a summer of discontent saw priests openly criticise his leadership.