Archbishop Pawl Cremona, OP, yesterday called at the pitkali vegetable market and told the farmers they were the people who were closest to nature so they could much better appreciate God’s creation.

It was the first visit ever by an archbisop to the market, where Mgr Cremona was greeted by the parliamentary secretary for agriculture and fisheries, Dr Francis Agius.

The archbishop also met the administration of the market and the leaders of the agricultural cooperatives.

Dr Agius said farmers were the guardians of the environment and although in Malta only one to two per cent of the population worked as farmers, they did useful work in taking care of the natural environment.

The archbishop thanked them for looking after God’s creation in their work and urged families and children to see nature directly, which would make their life fuller.

The farmers expressed their appreciation for the visit by donating cratefuls of produce to be passed to Church homes, including the Dar tal-Providenza, Ta’ Sawra home for the elderly at Rabat, St Anne and Holy Family Homes, children’s homes, the Home for the Clergy, Casa Leone and Angela House.