A collective effort is necessary to preserve Maltese culture and traditions that strengthen our Catholic roots and Maltese national identity, said a document published by L-G?aqda Nazzjonali Armar tal-Festi fit-Toroq, yesterday.

The document was issued in reaction to the church report Nirrestawraw il-Festi Flimkien, and addressed to Archbishop Paul Cremona, in particular.

The organisation said that the ecclesiastical authorities were considering all the feasts as a whole, when they should understand that the application of norms should not be the same for every town and village, since they all had particular characteristics.

It suggested the introduction of a set of general principles rather than speaking of details and frills. The report, it said, was too strict and had shocked certain parties.

They believed the new rules to be contradictory, since they were taking measures against things that had caused no harm and had been practiced for years on end.

Serious and honest dialogue with all the parties concerned, including firework factories, street decoration organisations and the police, was necessary in the matter. Limiting consultation to band clubs and parish priests, as happened in January, was not enough, it argued.

The organisation called for a serious internal analysis of every feast celebrated in Malta and Gozo. It called for self-regularisation in order for difficulties and exaggerations to be ironed out which, it said, would also start reducing shortcomings and repairing the serious disarray that had been brought about by pique.

The church’s report, which was recently published for consultation, had caused friction between the ecclesiastical authorities and feast enthusiasts, the organisation believed.

It therefore proposed a meeting to bring together the ecclesiastical authorities, all feast enthusiast organisations, band clubs and the police, for a discussion to decide the best solutions in consensus with everyone.

The goodwill of all concerned, the organisation said, must prevail for the objectives to be reached.