From Mr G. Gauci

I am not a regular reader of your newspaper, but last Sunday I decided to buy it. Well, going through the first pages, I got a very positive impression of it, but page 17 utterly disappointed me. This is simply because I analysed Mrs Caruana Galizia's article about… Well, it is a bit difficult to decipher the subject of

this article. It is uncertain whether she intended to

write about Good Friday in general, fasting on Good Friday or coffee shops on Good Friday. The theme is so confused that many times, the reader is lost; the article can be compared to a labyrinth. A multitude of arguments are treated, but no clear conclusions are reached in all this mess.

First of all, Mrs Caruana Galizia's article is full of typical clichés, made only by common fellows in the streets not by supposedly smart journalists. Let me quote one: “What 14-year-old contemplates the death of Christ on the Cross?” Did she go to church on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday? Did she attend any prayer and youth meetings like I did?

It seems that Mrs Caruana Galizia and I live in two completely different continents (not countries!). She tells us that Malta is still a fundamentalist State. Can someone write something like this in a fundamentalist State? Reflect and reflect well, Mrs Caruana Galizia!

The third and fourth paragraphs are the most horrible part of the article. It is unclear whether she wants to discredit those who attended the Good Friday rituals or that the rituals themselves are archaic and hypocritical. If Mrs Caruana Galizia wants to tell us that Good Friday (and other) rites are outdated by saying that in Sicily these rituals are attended by Mafia members and bosses and in Malta they are followed by “sinful” people, then this convinces me that this opinionated columnist lacks certain basic philosophical principles and an adequate line of thought.

Possibly, all the followers of Enna's Good Friday procession in Sicily (for example) are Mafia members? And can one qualify a Good Friday procession as hypocritical because some Mafia members attend it? Possibly nothing positive comes out of these manifestations? Who is she to judge the spiritual state of the people who fast in Malta? Spiritually speaking, if they are not leading an exemplary life, fasting and contemplation (but not alone) will help them. Another cliché regards Gozo if this woman thinks that on Good Friday, Gozo becomes a sort of Las Vegas for the Maltese; I do not think she's well informed on the subject.

And let me express my indignation on the argument of coffee (and non-coffee) shops opening or not on Good Friday. Malta, at least on paper, is a secular State where all religious beliefs are tolerated. Those few shop owners who opened their businesses on Good Friday had the right to do it; it is up to them But on the other hand, no shop-owner is obliged to go against his religious and traditional beliefs because Mrs Caruana Galizia fancies a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. Mrs Caruana Galizia's arrogantly tries to mock those shop owners who liberally and freely chose to respect this holy day. And the argument that as time passes, shop-owners will challenge traditions and they will open on Good Friday does not stand.

On the same argument, if Mrs Caruana Galizia appreciates much anti-conformism on Good Friday, why is she content that on this day she is not at her office? If she is fed up with the funerary aura in Malta on this day (is she living a century ago?) why doesn't she continue with her normal activities irrespective of what other people do? And then the alleged booming DVD rent rates on Maundy Thursday and the Gozitan “dirty week-ends”. Come on, this is pure amateurism!

To conclude, if Mrs Caruana Galizia hopes that the majority of Maltese people will stop participating in Holy Week celebrations and activities, she will have to wait for a few more decades to pass. Statistics show that the number of Maltese taking part in, or visiting Good Friday processions, is increasing, just like the number of those who go to Mass and participate in other church celebrations. Mrs Caruana Galizia should not be preoccupied.

If she does not hold with these traditions, nobody will force her to. And God's mercy is too infinite to turn her into a pillar of salt if she does not go to church. Maybe a number of Good Fridays in the future will present her with a clear occasion to exalt her anti-conformist (and sometimes anti-Maltese) tendencies.

Gabriel Gauci

KERCEM