In his article “What we believe in”, Robert Paul Cachia referred to “the martyrs of freedom of conscience” who, throughout the centuries, have suffered in order to be able to exercise free of thought, free religious allegiance, free agnosticism and even atheism. However, he forgot to mention those who were killed because those who were fighting for all the rights mentioned above would not tolerate their right to disagree with their views.

One such historical circumstance worth mentioning happened during the French Revolution. Mr Cachia never referred to the hundreds of thousands of people, simple peasants most of them, who in the Vendèe were brutally put down on the orders of the French revolutionary government of the time, mostly because they wanted to be free to exercise their Catholic faith as their ancestors had done for centuries. It is worth remembering what one of the revolutionary generals François Westermann, an officer in the Republican Army, wrote to the National Convention in 1793: “I have trampled the children under the horses’ hooves. I have massacred the women so they will give birth to no more rebels. I took no prisoners, I have exterminated everything.” He also failed to cite the hundreds of peasants and laymen who were drowned by revolutionaries in Nantes, or the two thousand Catholics who were guillotined and shot during 1793–1794 in the town of Angers. It seems that the crimes committed against those who wanted to exercise freedom of religion numbered no less than those committed in the name of justice.

Finally, he also forgot to mention the persecution that Christians, as well as members of other faiths, are suffering at present in many countries, among which China stands out. This is the country where those Catholics who refuse to adhere to the official Patriotic Catholic Church loyal to the government and declare their allegiance to the Church in Rome, are often sentenced to long terms in prison and where bishops and priests disappear without trace. Could it just be that at the beginning of the 21st century freedom is desirable for everyone but there are limits imposed on those who exercise a religious belief, especially if it is the Christian faith?

Jacqueline Calleja

BALZAN