A number of Church organisations in Malta have expressed concern over the number of votes garnered by extreme right groups in Malta and abroad during the European elections.
What was especially worrying, the organisations said, was that people on the extreme right had an ideology of hatred towards the weakest sections of society.
The Commission for the Environment, Caritas, the Emigrants Commission, the Justice and Faith Council and the Pastoral council on work recalled comments by Pope John Paul II in Malta in 2011 that the island had a unique vocation to serve as a bridge between the people of the Mediterranean, Africa and Europe.
The future of world peace depended on the strengthening of dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions. Malta, therefore, should build on its tradition of hospitality, the pope had said.