From Mr J. Vella

Allow me to share with your readers what followed the incident that took place on 14 July at 11am when I was verbally harassed to either pay or leave St John Co-Cathedral.

I did inform the office of the President of Malta, and that of the Prime Minister as well. The following day I forwarded the same letter to your newspaper and the tourism authority.

May I thank you all for your understanding and the acknowledgement I received in answer to my letter. I intend to express my gratitude to all in due time.

However, yesterday, 1 August, I received a phone call in the afternoon from a learned person who said he was from the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation.

He said that I should not have written to the authorities and if I had the guts I would have gone to his office to point out the individual so that action would be taken. I also should have asked him where the funds are going. He said that some one million tourists enter St John and do lot of damage among other things.

Let me present my facts: Since St John Cathedral was consecrated on 20 February 1578 by Monsignor Ludovico de Torres, Archbishop of Monreale, Maltese Catholics were always allowed last places during the service and free access at other times and never paid a cent.

I maintain that if a senior citizen entering St John is verbally harassed to either pay or leave, then I submit it is not fair, if it is not fair it is not right, if it is not right it is illegal, if it is illegal the agreement must be changed.

Joseph Vella

ZEBBUG