I very rarely watch Xarabank - it has all the right ingredients for a top show but it invariably ends up with Peppi Azzopardi losing control and the panel end up talking and arguing in a cacophony of degrading behaviour.

I did, however, tune in to last Friday's Xarabank when the recent European Court of Human Rights decision on the crucifix in an Italian school was discussed. Apart from the atheist and the priest holding tightly to a crucifix, while at the same time insisting it should not be hung in public places, the majority of the panel and audience - and it seems from the letters pages in the media, the majority of Maltese - vehemently oppose the ECRH ruling, stating this is a Catholic island and the crucifix is an integral part of our life.

My immediate reaction to this? What hypocrites we all are! We call ourselves Catholics; we defend the hanging of the crucifix in public places...

...then you simply can't walk anywhere in public without hearing someone interspersing his speech with a string of profanities, denigrating God and the Blessed Virgin.

Legend says St Paul "washed" the venom from Maltese snakes...too bad he did not wash our tongues as well!