Two days before the celebration of Christ the King Feast, on Friday 19 November a well-versed Irishman, Mr David Quinn, from the Iona Institute gave a hard hitting presentation at the Catholic Institute in Floriana on the invitation of the Cana Movement in Malta. He did not mince his words in specifying that the same people who campaigned in Ireland for divorce are the same people who are campaigning for same sex marriage and similar causes.
Hearing him I could only draw parallels with the local situation. The Irish spokesman emphasised the role of the media in moulding the minds of people in society and influencing politicians to refrain from backing marriage and the traditional family. Not surprisingly something similar is afoot in Malta, not just on a fringe commercial independent station but now during midday programming on the state’s own television station.
I would have thought that a non mainstream politician who polled an insignificant number of votes at both the national and the European election would not be allowed to continue political campaigning on state funded media in programmes where no other politicians, scholars, intellectuals or mere common people with opposing views are present, but merely another media person or two who concur with this pundit, thus not striking any balance at all.
At the same time, a high calibre presentation on a current much discussed theme, marriage and the family, by Irishman David Quinn was to the best of my knowledge presented to not more than 50 people at a Church hall. A presentation which would have been a good theme to highlight at a Diocesan organised public manifestation honouring Christ the King at which many hundreds were present.
This would have been a welcome innovation – a committed layperson from another European diocese delivering a timely message alongside the message delivered by the Bishop. Saying that we are now part of Europe and not involving other Europeans in helping us face threats they have already experienced does not help the cross fertilisation of ideas within the Christian fold.
Guz Bonett
Marsalforn