Dr Fenech Adami and Monsignor Mercieca exchanged their views during a meeting at the Archbishop’s Curia yesterday morning, their first official meeting since Dr Fenech Adami was appointed President.

President Fenech Adami said he felt it was his duty and his pleasure, at the start of his term, to pay a visit to the Archbishop’s Curia.

“I think I express the opinion of the majority of the general public when I say it is so good to see such a spirit of cooperation between the government and the Catholic Church,” said Dr Fenech Adami.

He said the sense of unity between the two most important pillars of our society was a great thing to see.

“This does not mean we are a closed society, it means we cherish our values,” he said.

Archbishop Mercieca thanked Dr Fenech Adami for keeping up the spirit of traditional cooperation. “Cooperation is necessary because people will have two sets of guidelines to follow. In Malta you are a citizen of the State and also a citizen of the Church,” said Mgr Mercieca.

The Archbishop said that it was necessary to be a good citizen as well as a good Catholic. “We must help people to be at ease with both the State and the Church. You cannot contribute to one and not the other. Values are essential to be a good person,” said Mgr Mercieca.

He said modern phenomenon such as theft, other forms of crime and family problems can be avoided by retaining good moral values. “Without good Christian values, a person breaks down and that in turn leads to the breaking down of society as a whole. Both the Church and the State must help families to have strong and healthy relationships,” said the Archbishop. He said this was especially true since many messages that are not in conformity with Christian values were becoming more and more common around the world.

Dr Fenech Adami replied that in modern Malta, everyone had their own moral values and it was good to see that people were ready to cooperate with the church. “It’s not like years ago when there was a tendency to impose values on people rather than allowing people to make up their own minds,” he said.

He said: “Of course now we have a sense of pluralism in our country and that is a phenomenon that was in truth brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall about 20 years ago.

“The world is learning that cooperation and tolerance are the key to peace,” concluded Dr Fenech Adami.