From Mr F. J. Vassallo

It is not normal for me to write such a letter to the press, as I normally write about finance matters, but the article “Of course he’s conservative” written by your columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia referring to the election of the new Pope, gave me no other choice (TMIS, 24 April).

As a Catholic I strongly protest this article. I protest, not about the personal beliefs she eloquently as usual portrays in this article by calling herself a Christian as opposed to being a Catholic, nor for her publicly confessing of not believing in the virgin birth nor in the infallibility of the Pope, but because she not only expressed her views, which, in this freedom of speech society we live in today, she is perfectly entitled to do so, but I protest because she blatantly incited her readers to follow suit and advised them to turn their back on the Catholic faith if they so feel.

The article is distasteful and offensive to us Catholics. I do not want to sound like an apologist or a saint, because I am not, but I question how the editor could have allowed a columnist to write in his newspaper sentences like “If you wake up one morning and admit to yourself that you are not a Catholic, the sky is not going to fall on your head. You are not going outside and get run over by a bus.” And, to add insult to injury, she writes, “God is not going to reach out his hand and smite you dead”.

Then after saying all this she has the guts to call herself a Christian instead of a Catholic? Call yourself anything but a Christian. It is true God will not smite you dead but if you are a Christian I am sure you believe that one day you will have to face the good Lord and when that happens, then explain yourself out of that one!!

If the columnist does not believe in the virgin birth or in the infallibility of the Pope who am I to question or argue with her about it? All I can tell her is that the virgin birth is one of the tenets of the Catholic Church and as such it is part of our religion and must accept it for what it is. She questions the Pope’s infallibility and here I must point out that the infallibility of the Pope is not a general infallibility but infallibility when he decrees dogmas of the Church, or as is commonly phrased ex cathedra, and not on whether he opines on a particular topic. The reason why he is infallible when issuing a dogma is because he invokes the intervention of the Holy Spirit who guides him accordingly. But I am no authority to preach the teachings of the Church, and I recommend your columnist to seek advice on religious matters before indulging in giving advice to her readers on what they should do on religious matters as most of the issues she points out are actually incorrect.

My grudge regarding this article is however not solely with Daphne. The article itself is distasteful and disrespectful as was the article she wrote in the same newspaper on 27th March regarding her frustration trying to find a café open on Good Friday, and how the De Cesare Brothers came to her rescue by altruistically keeping the cinemas open on such a solemn day. I will not bother with that article as Patricia Agius Vadala dealt with it beautifully in her letter of the 17th April.

My grudge in this case is also with the editor, not only because he allowed such cynical things to be written in his newspaper on our Catholic faith, but because ironically enough, apart from being the editor, he also happens to be a priest.

He either did not check the article before it went to print or worst still if he did read it, he allowed it to go to print. This is not about freedom of the press. This is about morality and permissiveness. It is about our society allowing everything to go by and not defend the values we stand for. Have we not had enough of this abuse when we allowed our governments in Europe to disregard a simple recognition of our Christian heritage in our new European Constitution?

I have always respected the editor of this newspaper for his journalism and he knows that, but as a Catholic I feel he has let us down. It is about time that we Catholic laity stand up and be counted for what we believe. I will not tolerate a subtle attack on my Catholic religion and take it lying down. Being an editor of a newspaper and a priest at the same time is no easy task. It is a fine line he has to walk as an editor and as a priest.

It is an independent newspaper as the name fully implies. Permissiveness by allowing such articles of such a nature should not be allowed in my humble opinion. I am not saying that the Church should do something about it. Probably the contrary. In fact I strongly believe that if the Church were to say something in this regard it could backfire.

I thus believe that it is us laity who should be more vociferous against such decadence in values, and publicly express our views.

Francis J. Vassallo

SAN PAWL TAT-TARGA

Editor’s note: I assure Mr Vassallo, and all readers, that all that appears in the paper is carefully read by me before being committed to print. I may not agree with the contents but I am a firm believer that the paper exists to allow the different opinions in the country to be heard. Proof of this, if proof be needed, is that although I disagree with Mr Vassallo’s point of view and even with his reading of what Ms Caruana Galizia wrote, he has a right to his opinion and he was helped to put his points across through the medium of the paper.