John Guillaumier, the militant atheist says that "Catholic indoctrination in Malta runs deep and starts early", and is mystified why "otherwise intelligent and rational adult still cling to Catholic beliefs which contradict reason and common sense" (TMIS, 20 September and 27 September)". He maliciously accuses priests of forming children's minds in order to dominate them for life! He thinks religion is "a divisive blight" and "poisons everything". He loses no opportunity to malign the Church and insults its members almost weekly in the press. Because Catholics defend themselves against his unwarranted attacks, he says they have "bestowed on themselves the privilege not to be provoked"!
To justify his frequent despicable attacks on religion, Guillaumier quoted a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in favour of the right of anyone to say anything "hurtful, offensive, shocking and disturbing" to people. To most rational civilised people this ruling gives excessive licence, particularly if such action serves a private agenda, and may lead to natural reactive violence, which is immoral and illegal. The ECHR preferred political correctness to wisdom in that decision. Where is civilisation going? In a civilised society, one does not need to vilify anyone's beliefs (religion) for the sake of argument. Public vilification of any religion is anti-social, discriminative, provocative, futile and dangerous; it should be controlled by a law that protects all people and all faiths to maintain public order and serenity.
Mr Guillaumier chooses to ignore the many good works Christians have done for centuries and the many charitable and educational institutions they still run worldwide. I am quite sure that no reasonable person could have any objection to the civilising philosophy of its founder Jesus Christ, who preached love of God and love of neighbour. Why does this man hate the Church so much? I would like to think that his quarrel is not with the content of Faith as such, but with those members of the Church who do or did wrong through ignorance, weakness, fanaticism, error or sheer stupidity. It is hard to imagine what he gets out of this persistent offensive campaigning against religions. I doubt he is a priest of the Antichrist and rather suspect his irritating activity is no more than an obsessive and compulsive public exhibition of imagined intellectual superiority or self-aggrandisement. The world does not need this man's unsolicited bigoted opinion; persuading people to leave the Catholic Church is not conducive to a better society. He should control his bile and learn to live and let live.
I have a charming picture of a placid contented donkey hanging in a frequented part of my house with this caption: "I am not stubborn - just true to my convictions". It imparts the message that it is futile for anyone to force one's beliefs on those who are happy with their own convictions, and quite wrong to do so persistently and offensively, especially when such action is unsolicited and objectionable to billions of people worldwide.
John B. Pace
Friends of the Sick and the Elderly in Gozo