While the 14-point list provided by Kevin Papagiorcupolo, the Curia's PRO (The Sunday Times, August 9), looks impressive, it can hardly be said to have been successful when it comes to the noise factor to which the vast majority of the population have repeatedly objected.

I'd like Mr Papagiorcopulo to correct me if I'm wrong, but is it not the Church authorities who pay for the fireworks, including the abominable petards, thus showing a sad lack of financial knowhow and no qualms about money going up in smoke, all on the pretext of a long-standing tradition? This means that lack of respect for the public is a long standing tradition too! Would the money not find a better use if channelled to charities or necessary repairs?

To make matters worse and add insult to injury, these same fireworks and petards are paid for by money collected from the people and then, with a surprising thoughtlessness for educated people, mercilessly used against them; against their comfort and their basic right to peace and quiet in their own homes.

Would it not have been more direct, more practical and more effective to meet with the pyrotechnic firms, sit round a table and tell them that if they persist in manufacturing petards, the Church will have no option but to stop buying all their fireworks, which will be abolished from Maltese festas, until they fall into line.

Faced with certain bankruptcy, they would agree with alacrity. Certainly, deafening bangs and other sundry loud noise add nothing to anyone's quality of life.

What is happening with the Curia's inability to control what is, and is not, acceptable in their daily activities and annual festivities merely adds to the disenchantment many people feel about the Church, with a consequent decline in Mass attendance.

Anything different from a direct approach, and anything that produces no real alleviation on our ears, is just tinkering with the problem in order to retain the status quo!