Malta has a new cult in its crowded calendar of feasts: the so-called cult of "divine mercy".

This cult is the product of subjective, hallucinatory "visions", dating back to the 1930s, of an obscure Polish nun called Sr Faustina.

The promoters of this cult admit that, for 20 years, her "writings" – which amounted to nothing more than notes in her diary - "were included in the list of forbidden books" by the Vatican. Here's an entry, full of fantasy and wishful thinking, from her diary: "On divine mercy Sunday, all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened wide." Meanwhile, nine million children under the age of five die every year.

The nun's lost "cause" was revived by her Polish compatriot, Pope John Paul. He went on to "canonize" her in order to flatter his fellow Poles, just as he "beatified" the now forgotten Adeodata Pisani and Nazju Falzon to flatter the Maltese people during his visit to Malta. 

Restless Catholics are always hankering after new cults and new saints to whom they can beg for more "miracles" and "graces". Their current fad is the dead Sr Faustina. In the recent past, it was Sr Alacoque!

 

John Guillaumier

St Julian's