From Mrs P. Agius Vadala

I found Daphne’s article most offensive to my religious sentiments (TMIS, 27 March). She tries to ridicule the fasting, closing down of all establishments and religious practices.

Daphne must remember that she is writing to a nation that has declared in its Constitution that the religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic religion.

For Roman Catholics, Holy Week culminates in the celebration of the greatest event in human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ Our Lord from the dead. The road to this event is one of suffering – the passion. Fasting and sacrifice help put one in mind of Christ’s passion and the millions suffering hunger and deprivation in an unjust world.

Fasting is not done “out of respect”. Self-denial by way of fasting, even simple fasting like not adding milk to your coffee is the least one can do. The Church is not asking us to fast for 40 days like Christ did in the desert! Fasting and abstinence are the fifth precept of the Roman Catholic faith as “… they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart…”. Maybe that is why we have “…marital break-ups, cohabitation, giving birth in extraordinary circumstances…” because everybody just does what they feel like without consideration for any beliefs and the general well being of society at large. We have become a people who have no control over our actions. And just because everybody is doing it does not mean “that it is all right”.

I find Daphne’s generalisations that Maltese people who are able to escape a Maltese Easter weekend gratuitous. It sounds like my children, “But Ma, all my friends are going,” when in fact they are not, and it turns out that only a handful went.

Of course we have more than our fair share of hypocrites but thank God Malta as a whole still believes in marking Good Friday by creating a general ambience conducive to remembrance and soul searching. That is why establishments close down, to give us a chance once a year to do some soul-searching without any distractions. No it is not a joke; it is we who have made it a joke because we have lost our faith. And no, the way forward is not opening establishments but education. And yes, we may have our fair share of couples cohabiting, producing children in complicated circumstances or popping off to the continent for an abortion. But the vast majority follow the Roman Catholic religion, get married in Church and have children in a stable relationship. And they work hard at it to be successful. Sometimes they fail, but they get up and start again. And not all unwanted pregnancies are terminated. We have young unmarried couples and single mothers who, with the help of God, accept this gift. And no, I don’t suppose that you now just shrug and carry on in the face of this hypocrisy. Your whole article about your empty stomach on Good Friday is testament to this. Daphne seems to grudge the Lord this one day. And if the De Cesare brothers choose to keep their cinemas open on this Holy Day for the altruistic explanation Daphne has attributed to them, tell it to the marines; the reading public have more intelligence than to believe such an interpretation

And finally, next year I really hope that Daphne will intuit the feeling of the Easter celebrations, but before she starts downing her Limoncello and figolla to try and contemplate the Lord, she tries to achieve this in a more respectful manner.

Patricia Agius Vadala

RABAT