Rev. Can Anton Cassar, the Archpriest of St George parish church in Qormi, is in the habit of telling a joke during Mass, just after Communion. He does this at Sunday Mass, and he makes it a point not to miss the occasion on special feast days.

Not only are his jokes out of place, but some are also hurtful. In fact, in January of this year, on the feast of the Sacred Family, his joke was about how a son-in-law voluntarily permitted his mother-in-law to drown in the river and was later congratulated by his father-in-law, who gave him a BMW as a reward.

I have expressed my dislike on this matter to Fr Cassar. I also drew the attention of the local Church authorities. But all to no avail.

The authorities of the Catholic Church in Malta are reluctant to express themselves on the matter. However, a Bishop in Australia publicly condemned a similar situation.

This month, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Julian Porteous emphasised that a religious ceremony, especially Mass, is a sacred event and therefore the whole context of celebration should be one that engenders respect, appreciation of the divine and a whole sense of reverence for holy things, that is always got to be the ground in which a priest approaches his duties.

Bishop Porteous stated that preserving the dignity of the occasion should be uppermost in the mind of a priest, and that the Mass was not the venue for the priest to indulge his own personality.

“There has been a tendency for people to feel that a joke at the end of the Mass is something to leave people with a smile. There can be place for a comment, which may be a truth or insight into the foibles of humanity, but jokes, if they are corny and self-serving, are inappropriate,” Bishop Porteous said.

Similar sentiments were expressed by the Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, who emphasised that God and Church is no laughing matter.

Paul Galea

QORMI