Fr Joe Borg, in his column of February 20, felt the need to give readers of this newspaper some lessons about the Catholic Church in Europe, and he gave us the German Church as an example.

As far as I know, there is no German, English or any other denomination of the Catholic Church. The Church is one; it was founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man.

Perhaps Fr Borg prefers a Church of actors and theologians, and told us in Germany a cardinal smeared another cardinal in public.

We have no cardinals in Malta; we have bishops and archbishops, whom I admire and respect because they live up to their responsibilities.

I cannot say the same about certain clerics, though, and because of this I have lost my trust in them.

This is not because of the scandalous cases of paedophilia by a few members of the clergy, but because some clerics would rather not be recognised as priests but as guests on television shows, giving us their own opinions in the name of contrasting ideas.

The Church of Christ is not a political party which can tolerate a certain amount of dissent from the official line, though even here contrasting ideas within the same party create confusion in the minds of voters.

There have been priests and prelates with “contrasting ideas” in the Church in the past: Martin Luther, and Archbishop Lefebvre, to name but two; both caused a schism in the Church. Judas was the first cleric to express dissent with the teachings of Jesus and His Church,

I am disappointed by Fr Borg’s admission that he prefers an open Church, a Church of divergent ideas and theologians.

Such a Church would be like a supermarket where customers pick what they want and leave the rest on the shelves to gather dust and mould.

I am proud to say that I do not recognise this kind of Church. My Church is the one founded by Jesus Christ and based on His teachings.