From Mr A. Cortis
I must correct an inaccuracy in Mr Prictoe’s letter entitled English language press in Malta is truly free (TMIS, 11 November) which said that I am not an admirer of the Catholic Church. This is wrong, as I do admire a Catholic faith founded on true Christian beliefs, as I do equally any other faith that seeks to improve mankind’s behaviour on this planet. I have to admit I do not admire or respect some of the functionaries who run the Catholic Church in Malta.
These are my reasons:
The Church creates a great deal of noise pollution and these functionaries allow it to continue, when they are in a position to stop if not all, certainly most of it.
Many people from all over the Islands have asked them to stop firing the very loud petards during the local feasts, and to restrict themselves to just the colourful fireworks, to which nobody objects, and they have been completely ignored.
They have been asked to stop any unnecessary bell ringing at all times. A neighbour of mine told me that the only ones she knows about are the (loud) bells that are rung at about 7 every evening for some minutes to commemorate an event linked to an outbreak of the bubonic plague some 300 years ago. If true, this is absurd and any ringing of bells for similar reasons should be stopped.
The bells can only be heard by those people whose houses are situated within a radius of approximately 400 metres of the church. Anyone further away is out of earshot, unless they are already out of doors. Apart from a useless exercise, this makes it an undeserved and unjust punishment on the mostly elderly people who live close to the church, with what could be classified as “acoustic torture”. It will no doubt be argued that none of them has complained.
People assume one is criticising God, when one speaks against a church functionary’s attitude. In fact, one woman who lives close to me and who heard me complaining about our noisy parish priest warned me not to speak so of him, as God would send me bad luck for the rest of my years! Many of my neighbours are elderly, so they still belong to an outdated style of thinking. It is true that bell ringing is traditional in Malta, but it is equally true that many traditions all over the world have been abandoned because they were affecting people’s wellbeing.
These bells are rung starting from early morning (5.50am) and repeated frequently without taking into consideration anyone who may be ill, frail, elderly, new-born, suffering from high blood pressure or any other illness that is aggravated by noise, in need of sleep, if any working-age resident works nights, etc.
With dwindling church attendances, it may be necessary to assess if people are staying away from church (as in my case, for instance) because they do not like the way they are being treated, and so a revision of their behaviour may be desirable. Alienating and antagonising the public is certainly not the right way to lure people back into their churches!
I feel sure that I could come up with other valid reasons, but I wish to keep this letter as concise as possible.
In closing, all I can add is that when I leave – quite
likely for foreign shores – once more, after I have visited the ones in which I would most likely want to live, I will take with me unpleasant memories of my time in Zabbar and all because of one person!
It is a shame, because I like it here. I like my neighbours – it reminds me of the old Malta I remember from my childhood. I like the old buildings, including the outside of the church. But that’s Malta!
Alexander Cortis.
ZABBAR.