I refer to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s article The eagle has landed (TMID, 4 October). On other occasions I have stopped myself from wasting any time on her comments. I believe that if one had to say exactly what her writings evoke in the emotions of other people, they would probably need the assistance of Fr Elija Vella or one of his colleagues!
In very few other spaces have I encountered such hatred and intolerance towards other people and their opinions. What should concern us is not what Fr Elija Vella wrote in Flimkien, for after all, Flimkien is a Church publication, and so, in a country where freedom of the press is sacrosanct, it has every right to present the views of the Catholic faith. Why should this surprise any reader? No article in this publication attacks and provokes hatred and animosity. That is what concerns me: the instigation of hatred and anger, and not issues of faith, which, after all, should not effect the writer if she does not have any. Thank God that ultimately the issue of faith and religion is not a prerogative of Ms Caruana Galizia, even though in what she writes she continuously imposes her own faith and religion.
What concerns me, and what ought to concern many, is the venom which I find recorded in most of her columns. They instigate hatred and anger. It is a good thing that I believe that as Benedict XVI says, evil and the evil one are ultimately inseparable, for I would not wish for any individual, including this columnist, to be the creator of so much negativity and bitterness, since she comes up with so much evil directed against any Tom, Dick and Harry, with whom she does not agree.
For individuals like Ms Caruana Galizia, and I know a few others, the absolute of what a person of faith or the Church may propose has no foundation. But the absolute of what they believe in, is to have no confrontation and opposition, for otherwise beware! Anybody can find themselves the subject of Thursday’s column, which in my opinion often seems as if it’s a desperate attempt to fill the space provided. What a pity that this newspaper, which on many other counts reaches a high standard of journalism, needs to fill a space in such a manner; as if it needs the sensationalism provided in such columns to keep the readers captive.
Just for the record, please note that it is not only psychiatrists or psychologists in Malta who work hand-in-hand with exorcists, as this is a practice that happens internationally, and not only in the Catholic Church. Maybe if the journalist acquaints herself with different readings of important psychiatry, publications such as books by M. Scott Peck and the British Journal of Psychiatry, she can find a balanced picture which does not categorically exclude what faith proposes, and the pastoral guidance and help that Fr Elija Vella and other exorcists offer for free to those who seek their help is not a medieval approach, but rather that of a Church that although deeply bound in faith, does not exclude the provision of science, even though the latter may not have all answers and solutions.
On my part, I will conclude my letter regarding the issue here. Not that there isn’t much more to share, but I am aware that rooted deep within the psyche of a person there are conditions which can, unknowingly, impede him or her to see what others may see so clearly. At the end of the day, while no signs are required by the believer to have faith, no amount of proof, signs or information will move the unbeliever to accept what they haven’t got, or are unable to see.
Joyce Cassar MA
Balzan