During an activity commemorating the 450th anniversary of the Great Siege, archbishop Charles Scicluna noted that today, some people around the world are still fighting for freedom.

“The Great Siege battle of 1565 was a struggle against enslavement as obscurantism – it was against the enemies of true freedom. This struggle today is still pertinent and necessary,” he said.

Archbishop Scicluna said that while we should rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanities, we should also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them.

“We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way.  Only then do we become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today,” Mgr Scicluna said.

The archbishop continued that peace is God’s dream, His plans for humanity, for history and creation.  But this plan is always met by opposition from men. “Even in our time, the desire for peace and the commitment to build peace collide against the reality of many armed conflicts presently affecting our world. They are a kind of third world war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications; we sense an atmosphere of war.

Some wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately, mainly those who want conflict between different cultures and societies, and those who speculate on wars for the purpose of selling arms. But war means children, women and the elderly in refugee camps; it means forced displacement of peoples; it means destroyed houses, streets and factories; it means, above all, countless shattered lives,” he said.

Quoting  a poem by Dun Karm Psaila he asked: “Is it indeed true that this Monument has become a lie?  Is it indeed true that the praises uttered here every year have become lies?” He added that politicians are called to the important task of safeguarding fundamental human rights.

“In this way it will be possible to build, with concrete measures, a more peaceful and just society, working step-by-step together to solve the many problems which people experience daily,” he said.