When times are tough, when money is tight, when people feel threatened by the inevitable change that this new century and EU ways of living are bringing, it’s not surprising that we are witnessing a rise in fundamentalist attitudes.

This is evident everywhere, but particularly in the media.

There is something about the written word in Malta that really freaks people out. I mean, people say and do the most outrageous things in private. But the minute you write about it or report on it, all the Maltese hackles start rising. People might strongly agree with you on a subject, particularly if you attack the establishment, but would not dare write in to say so, because that would somehow be exposing their point of view. We are, on the whole, a very cowardly lot, who love to tut-tut if someone writes something fairly strong, but are loathe to express ourselves in writing for fear of possible recrimination. Until that changes, I can’t see this country progressing on any genuine moral front.

For example, when I criticised the religious doctrine system, whereby apart from going to school, children of seven have to go along two, three or even four times a week to this extra schooling, almost everyone I met agreed and said “well done” for saying it. But none of them would write in and say “this is terrible”.

It was the same with my criticism of the Matsec system. You echo people’s frustration but they are too scared to express it themselves, which is a pity. After all if enough people did write in, the powers-that-be, be they in the Church or in politics, would notice that this is a popular feeling, and perhaps budge a bit. As it is, a few columnists express what are often very popular points of view but they appear almost extremist because no one else dares say so.

There have been so many examples lately of what appears to be a regression in tolerance that it is difficult to know where to start. A recent cartoon about the new Pope (in The Sunday Times), and an article by one woman columnist (in The Malta Independent on Sunday) brought out a spate of angry letters, as did an article in Il-Gens by a priest who has now been forcibly silenced for six months.

This is a great shame. The

message seems to be there can be no criticism of a pope. I do agree that it is premature to criticise him before he has even really started his papacy, but he was active and vociferous before and it is a well-known fact that many people, including deeply religious ones, were dismayed by his appointment.

It’s the same if you support a political party here. Must that support be totally blind and stupid? I’ve always hated any form of club for that reason, be it political, religious or even social. What is this mania to only be allowed to praise everything about your side? I mean, it’s perhaps understandable in terms of football, where even I am a bit blind in my love for Arsenal FC, but if they played a lousy game, I say so. And, if Chelsea were better this season, so be it. This year Chelsea were the best and that’s it really.

But do we really believe we Catholics have a prerogative on goodness? I really do admire people of whatever religion who are genuinely religious. And by that I mean that not only do they observe the rites and practices of their faith but they also live them. There are a few people like this, but they are definitely not in the majority here.

We have, after all, the same rate of (and much higher) tax evasion, domestic violence, child abuse, pimps and prostitutes and any matter of social ill you can name. These are just the drastic extremes. But we also count as our national sports envy of others (ghira), destroying people’s reputation by lying about them and a few other traits that are beyond the scope of this article.

We may give a lot of money when there is a tsunami appeal but there is a lot of moral rot everywhere, and our very strong Catholic faith does not appear to be keeping it at bay. What seems to happen is that people think they can get away with anything as long as they go to church on Sunday, confess all their sins and away they go. I do wonder whether those nice men dealing in internet child pornography, or ferrying and killing Chinese migrants were, in fact, church-goers too?

We’re also hearing that only married couples should get fertility treatment. Well, in a country which has no divorce, how can this be fair? Again, imagine your 25 or 35-year-old daughter dumped by hubby for a Russian. So she can never marry again in this crazy country and even if she does meet someone and forms a serious relationship and then has fertility problems, she cannot be helped. What kind of Christian attitude to infertility is that?

And the saddest thing of all is that you cannot stop progress at all, even though you might not like some of its manifestations. I think that, as a country, we need to be more open, more tolerant and far, far more intelligent about the way we approach social issues. The Church’s angle is important to many, but as we can see from how the majority are living their lives (on the pill, having sex before marriage, etc.) the majority are ignoring what the Church decrees.