History will be made today when His Holiness the Pope canonises the much loved priest who dedicated his life to instil solid Christian values in the young people of his day. One could argue that Dun Gorg Preca lived in very different times from those we live in today, but his message is timeless because it is based on sound values we inherited as a result of our adherence to the Christian faith.

However, when we look around us with an attentive eye and beyond self-interest, we realise that sainthood is not that uncommon even today in some of our families. We therefore need to acknowledge that sainthood is not only an achievable goal for holy priests like Dun Gorg, but also a reality for some who, without any fanfare, go about their lives achieving extraordinary levels of altruism.

As I keep in constant touch with Maltese families, I often see cases of parents who dedicate their lives to caring for their handicapped child. These parents do all it takes to ensure that, despite the obvious limitations that Mother Nature would have imposed on their offspring, he or she leads a life of happiness and fulfilment.

These parents often struggle financially to make ends meet. Their loving task sometimes limits their social life, and they have to go through great difficulties to find even some time for themselves, like for instance going on holiday.

Their greatest worry is what will happen to their handicapped children if they outlive them. As they advance in years this questions tortures them because the State has still not done enough to create more facilities to cater for such social cases.

Other cases that reflect modern day sainthood in practice can be found in families where a child has become a victim of drug abuse. How many mothers and fathers go through Calvary in their short earthly life trying to rescue their son or daughter from the misery of dependence on illegal substances? How more difficult do their lives become when faced with the unjustified judgments of our society that is more ready to condemn than to understand and help?

And perhaps even more common examples of contemporary sainthood can be found in those families who have to struggle to live decently because they face serious material deprivation. Families where there is no breadwinner because of illness and unemployment have to fight hard to maintain their dignity. This challenge becomes even more difficult when there are young children in such households.

All these sad realities make it incumbent on us politicians to look beyond the surface of our society. We need to ensure that the limited resources of our country are not wasted on projects of limited use or, even worse, squandered by those who are entrusted to serve our people.

Our priorities should be skewed in favour of those who are most in need of public assistance to make their lives a little more bearable in face of the difficult challenges they have to confront. What these people need is not charity, but a solid commitment from those in power to provide them with basic rights to the services they require to cope with the difficult circumstances they live in.

It is easy to get very emotional on a day like this when in the splendour of St. Peter’s Square in Rome we hear the Pope name one of our compatriots a saint of the Catholic Church. But let us not overlook the many examples of sainthood that surround us all the time. Let us celebrate the unrecognised sainthood of those who tiptoe through life, sacrificing themselves for a cause of selfless love.

[email protected] www.mangioncharles.com

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.