Martin Scicluna, in his opinion piece entitled “Kmiec’s constitutional gaffe: We are not a theocracy”, seems baffled by the simple word “Magisterium”, when used in the context of the Church’s teaching on a current major bioethical issue (TMIS, 6 May).

This is not surprising considering he is a military man and a graduate of several British military academies.

Nor is it surprising that his nostrils flared at the slightest mention of God at the Forum convened by the President to discuss the Constitution, at which a former American ambassador and Professor of Constitutional Law was invited to speak.

Apart from the trivia of diplomatic protocol worrying Mr Scicluna, the serious concern here regards his ideas as to who should set, and be the guardian of, the country’s moral foundations.

Surely he is not suggesting that his Today Public Policy Institute should re-write the Ten Commandments, or that he should be briefed to open fresh concordat negotiations with the Vatican to re-calibrate our Church-State relations.

That pretension would indeed be inflated, egocentric nonsense.

Joseph A. Muscat

TA’ XBIEX