From Mr P. Galea

On 5 July 2007, an appointment was made with the Archbishop of Malta, Msgr Pawl Cremona OP, during which he was personally informed about the details referred to in the letter to the editor entitled “Money donated to Charity” (TMIS, 24 February). In fact, he was given all the details, including those of the people concerned as well as the relative documents.

However, the archbishop’s reaction was that he could do nothing about the matter since he has no jurisdiction over religious orders! It should be noted that although the institutions involved were all Church entities, not all of them were religious orders.

Since the Archbishop said that he does not have any jurisdiction over religious orders, then who has? Does it mean that the archbishop is responsible for only some of the Christians in Malta? If this is the case, then he should inform the Maltese Christians who has jurisdiction over them.

As far I know there is only one Church in Malta. It is well known that when a religious priest wrote or spoke about something that did not go down well with the archbishop, the archbishop himself banned him from writing or speaking in public for six months.

There was also a press release from the Curia to this effect. Or is jurisdiction interpreted according to what is convenient?

Is it not the duty of the archbishop to denounce ALL abuses, and take action when these concern the Church and its institutions?

Six months had elapsed since the personal meeting with the archbishop but no action whatsoever had been taken. On 26 January, a letter was sent to the archbishop about this same matter. Although receipt of this letter was acknowledged, there has been no response since.

Paul Galea

QORMI