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The Middle Ground – Tonio Fenech for Catholic Voices Malta

 

Wise Solomon had a very though decision to make when confronted with two women claiming to be the mother of a surviving baby, after one mother lost her newly born at sleep. Solomon sought the middle ground, offering to divide the babies in two, a half each. The mother, terrified of what the middle ground meant offered her son to the lying woman. Solomon recognising the selflessness act of the mother, gave the son back to her.
The call by Dr Andrea Dibben in her article of the 14th April, to explore the middle ground in the abortion debate unfortunately offers no different outcome for the unborn child. Contrary to Dibbens belief, this is not about personal morality, but about the fundamental right to life, that today our laws protect in everyone’s interest.

Urging us to explore abortion from philosophical theories that seek to deny the basic scientific facts that a human is always a human at whatever stage of its development, colour, race, gender, etc., and dehumanising the individual with devastating consequences. Black people enslaved; Jews, ethnic Poles, the Roma, “incurably sick”, gay people and others, exterminated in the Holocaust. Today, societies that deny women legal rights, deeming them lesser legal persons, with husbands granted the right to kill their wives in case of adultery; Brunei just legalised the stoning of gays; the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient, that was exposed to have deliberately killed perfectly heathy bed ridden patients through hunger, without their consent, for budget cuts; Denmark and Iceland boasting that they are 100% down syndromes free, by aborting all diagnosed down syndrome unborn babies. Need we more illustrations of the effects of philosophical dehumanization, as pro-abortionists seek to do of the unborn child to justify its killing.
Dibbens seems to want a debate exclusively on her terms, i.e. excluding any moral and scientific arguments. This indeed makes any middle ground very difficult to find. If we want to find common solutions these need to share in the interest of supporting the mother and the unborn child.
It is science not religion that tells us that from the moment of conception in the womb lives a distinct human being and not merely a bunch of cells, like a cancer that kills you. It is science that tell us that these cells are not a potential, but the start of a life that if left uninterrupted from human intervention, sickness or accident will live till old age allows it to no longer generate further and die.

We appreciate that a pregnant mother may be facing difficulties due to a pregnancy, but as Pope Francis so bluntly put it “hiring a hitman to resolve a problem”, is no middle ground solution.

This leads me to the second point. A discussion needs to be based on honest facts.

Going through the 30 Q&A infographics that Dibbens describes as facts and arguments that seek to dispel myths on abortion, I found these to be nothing more than a sales pitch based on a mix of unfounded statements, fudges and misrepresentations.

Abortion is a health care issue (myth 1), is certainly not the case for the killed unborn child.

Saying that an unwanted pregnancy damages a woman’s health (14) but then denying (myth 2,13) that aborting the child within you, the most unnatural thing to do, has no mental health implication, is a what? The internet is full of testimonies of women who remained traumatised, anguished and regretted their decision to abort a child.

Selling the idea that because most abortions are done before 8 weeks then they are ok (myth 4); begs the question, if after they are not ok at 9 weeks what makes 8 weeks less human? Science is clear, the zygote, foetus, unborn child is human from second one, from conception, not from 9 weeks.
Myth 7 sells the idea that because the foetus up to 24 weeks feels no pain begs the question since when felling pain makes one deserving to live or to die? So if you give someone a pain killer then you can kill him or her?
Myth 8 is an outright deception that keeps being used by pro-abortionists like the Trojan horse. The infographic claims that an abortion done to protect the mother’s life is a crime. False. Maltese Health protocols are clear, if the mother’s life is at risk, a doctor is obliged to save the mother’s life even if the consequence is the loss of the child. We simply do not call this an abortion but a miscarriage.

The article does not allow me space to go into all infographics, but this is the sort of misinformation we are starting to be feed.

Dibbens also misreads as overwhelmingly positive feedback the reach of 180,000 people through this Facebook campaign. Facebook reach is not a sign of overwhelming support, many people reached do not even read the post it merely scrolls in front of them. When I entered the Page verify response the Page had 1,046 Likes at the time of writing, a response rate of less than 0.6% of the Facebook reach, not overwhelming at all.

Thank you Mr. President for the firm message of defence of life you have sent in your inaugural speech. Kudos to the Maltese Government who this month, at the United Nations 52nd Session of the Commission for Population and Development, reaffirmed Malta’s clear and unequivocal position against the interpretation of abortion as a sexual and reproductive health service, stating clearly “the right to heath does not include the right to abortion as this goes against the right to life, which is paramount”.

What we need today is a renewed effort to continue nourishing this beautiful culture of respecting life, agreeing here with the Prime Minister that it needs to include all life, even that of migrants at sea.

Let us discuss the support systems that pregnant mothers in difficulty need, how to create situations where mothers that cannot take responsibility for their child, are assisted to either for so or help them transition the child toward adoption or foster care, in the most discreet and respectful manner. These are the middle ground solutions that together we should work around, solutions that do not pit the mother against the child, or place the unborn child under the knife.

This article was published by the Malta Independent on the 18th April 2019

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2019-04-18/newspaper-opinions/The-middle-ground-6736206848

 

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Successfully completion of the Catholic Voices Malta training course Development of Article Writing Skills

As part of our mission to enable more Catholics to be a relevant voice in society during the months of March and April, Catholic Voices Malta organised a course for four participants keen on being a voice through the written media.    The course dealt with issues like the Communication Triangle i.e.  distinguishing between audiences, the purpose of the article and the Catholic Voices method of communication;  the distinction between editing and revising and learning how to give and receive feedback.   The course also focused on writing for effectiveness and exploring different writing strategies and rhetorical devices,  identifying the article to respond to and formulating the Catholic Voices Reframe methodology.

The course participants found the course a strong learning experience and we all thank Sandro Spiteri for designing and delivery of the course.

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Pope Francis Letter to the Youths “Church, world need the gifts, enthusiasm of young people”

The Vatican today published Pope Francis’s reflection on the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people.   The reflection is titled “Christus Vivit” (“Christ Lives”), and is a letter to young people about their place in the Church and a plea to older members of the Church not to stifle the enthusiasm of the young, but to offer gentle guidance when needed.

The Pope describes the life of a young person and the vocation to which God calls each one of them as “holy ground”.

In the document, released April 2, Pope Francis talked about how the sex abuse crisis, a history of sexism and an overly narrow focus on just a handful of moral issues can keep young people away from the Church.

But he also said many young people want to know and understand the teachings of the Church and, despite what many people think, they long for and need times of silent reflection and opportunities to serve their communities.

“A Church always on the defensive, which loses her humility and stops listening to others, which leaves no room for questions, loses her youth and turns into a museum,” Pope Francis wrote. “How, then, will she be able to respond to the dreams of young people?”

Young people have a natural desire to improve the life of the church and the world around them, the pope said. If older people in the church will let the young people try, it will keep the church youthful, too.

“Let us ask the Lord to free the Church from those who would make her grow old, encase her in the past, hold her back or keep her at a standstill,” Pope Francis wrote. “But let us also ask him to free her from another temptation: that of thinking she is young because she accepts everything the world offers her, thinking that she is renewed because she sets her message aside and acts like everybody else.”

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, holds Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “Christus Vivit” (Christ Lives), during a news conference for its presentation at the Vatican April 2, 2019. The document contains the pope’s reflections on the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment. (CNS photo/CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-EXHORTATION-YOUNG April 2, 2019.

The core of the Pope’s message to young people was that they remember they are loved by God and saved by Jesus, who continues to live and act in the world and in their lives.

“His love is so real, so true, so concrete, that it invites us to a relationship of openness and fruitful dialogue,” even when one is angry with God, the Pope said. “He does not get upset if you share your questions with him. He is concerned when you don’t talk to him, when you are not open to dialogue with him.”

Drawing on the final documents from the synod and from a presynod gathering of young people in Rome, Pope Francis urged parishes and dioceses to rethink their young and young adult programs and to make changes based on what young people themselves say they want and need.

“Young people need to be approached with the grammar of love, not by being preached at,” he said. “The language that young people understand is spoken by those who radiate life, by those who are there for them and with them. And those who, for all their limitations and weaknesses, try to live their faith with integrity.”

Directly addressing young people, he said, “Take risks, even if it means making mistakes. Don’t go through life anaesthetized or approach the world like tourists. Make a ruckus!”

And, he told them, reach out to other young people, do not be afraid to mention Jesus and to invite friends to church or a church-sponsored activity.
“With the same love that Christ pours out on us,” the Pope said, “we can love him in turn and share his love with others in the hope that they too will take their place in the community of friendship he established.”

Youth ministry cannot be elitist or focused only on the teens and young adults already active in the Church’s life, he said. It must be “a process that is gradual, respectful, patient, hopeful, tireless and compassionate,” as Jesus was when he walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Parents, pastors and spiritual guides must have “the ability to discern pathways where others only see walls, to recognize potential where others see only peril. That is how God the Father see things; he knows how to cherish and nurture the seeds of goodness sown in the hearts of the young.”

“Each young person’s heart should thus be considered ‘holy ground,’ a bearer of seeds of divine life, before which we must ‘take off our shoes’ in order to draw near and enter more deeply into the mystery.”

A long section of the document is focused on discerning one’s vocation, which, he said, always is a call to serve God and serve others, but always in a unique way.

Discovering one’s vocation, he said, “has to do with finding our true selves in the light of God and letting our lives flourish and bear fruit.”

For most young people that will mean marrying, forming a family and working, the Pope said.

“Within the vocation to marriage we should acknowledge and appreciate that ‘sexuality, sex, is a gift from God. It is not taboo. It is a gift from God, a gift the Lord gives us,'” he wrote. Sexuality “has two purposes: to love and to generate life. It is passion, passionate love. True love is passionate. Love between a man and a woman, when it is passionate, always leads to giving life. Always. To give life with body and soul.”

Pope Francis also encouraged young people not to dismiss out of hand the fact that God may be calling them to priesthood or religious life.
God’s call to each person is individual, made-to-measure just for him or her, the pope said, so discovering that call can be done only with calm, silence, prayer and the wise help of someone who truly knows how to listen and ask the right questions.

A vocation, he said, is a gift that “will help you live to the full and become someone who benefits others, someone who leaves a mark in life; it will surely be a gift that will bring you more joy and excitement than anything else in this world. Not because that gift will be rare or extraordinary, but because it will perfectly fit you. It will be a perfect fit for your entire life.”

One can read the Letter by pressing the link hereunder:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20190325_christus-vivit.html

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‘Low unemployment does not mean adequate wages’ – Malta Independent interview with Tonio Fenech for Catholic Voices Malta

by Kevin Schembri Orland for Malta Independent , Monday, 4 March 2019,

Former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has issued a warning about Malta’s current economic boom, highlighting that the economy needs better management as while the country registers positive economic growth, a number of negative impacts are also visible and growing.

Recently Fenech, through the group Catholic Voices Malta, highlighted certain concerns about the Maltese economy. Responding to news reports regarding the importation of workers from Turkey to work on construction projects, Fenech asked: “Why are we over-building our country in the name of economic growth and job creation. We are building mega high quality projects as though all the rich people in the world will come to live in Malta, while causing shortages in the housing market that caters for lower to medium income families and first time buyers making prices unaffordable – and the jobs created for whom? Foreign workers paid €800 per month?”

Talking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Fenech questioned what the impact of Malta’s current economic reality is, which, while having positives such as economic growth, is also having negative impacts.

“Unfortunately, in my opinion, what we are seeing today is an economy growing from sectors which, in themselves, over-expose the country to other pressures. Development was always a component in the country’s economic development. However, injecting a significant pipeline of large projects into the economy which in itself creates economic growth – as construction alone creates such growth – one needs to question what impact this will leave on the economy at large. In order to sustain the economic growth we are seeing in terms of construction, we are simply increasing significant pressure on the need to import labour. We are solving the problem of building all these projects by importing labour which is evidently being brought in at very cheap rates.”

He said that when importing cheap labour to sustain economic growth, in terms of the theory of supply and demand, if supply is meeting demand at a low price, then these low wage levels become the benchmark for the rest of the economy. He said that Maltese workers who aspired to have a better a wage while working in the construction sector are having their ambitions frustrated, “as they will be told they are not needed as workers paid €800 a month could be brought in from abroad to carry out the same work”.

He said that many question why they do not see Maltese working in jobs like construction or in the restaurant industry. “The only reason is that this demand is being satisfied by cheap labour imported from abroad, and the Maltese, aspiring for a better quality of life would most likely be paid even lower than they used to be in those same jobs.”

So in reality, who is benefiting from this economic growth? The country’s economic strategy should have Maltese families as its core focus; in reality, it is not benefiting Maltese workers, but only benefiting the major companies undertaking these major projects, he said.

A second major impact in relation to this reality is the housing required to support imported labour, he said.

“This is a complex situation as we have these mega projects being constructed, not for the average income families, but for foreigners able to purchase or rent at substantially high prices in five-star locations.”

He said that most people coming to Malta for work look to live in more reasonable priced housing. He said he is not just referring to construction workers, but also the much higher paid sectors like the online gaming industry. “We’ve even seen comments from companies in the online gaming sector that the rents are becoming so high that employees they try to bring to Malta are finding it unaffordable. Now everyone knows that the online gaming industry pays good wages. So if these people being paid good wages cannot the rent prices in Malta, what about the families who do not work in the gaming sector?”

“Does this mean we are xenophobic and that we don’t want foreigners? No it doesn’t, any economy needs an element of foreign workers, but when one looks at how an economy evolves, and if the primary purpose is the wellbeing of Maltese families, then we should not take economic measures which overheat the economy and create social problems to families . An economy requires pacing.”

“We are not seeing the pacing of projects and it seems that the authorities have decided to give blanket approvals to massive projects, all coming up at the same time, which in itself is overheating the situation,” he argued.
Asked whether, theoretically, Maltese would go for more well-paid jobs, he said he hopes they will be able to find such jobs, but the rates of say early school leavers is still an issue. “The unemployment rate is low but this does not mean that the level of wages workers are paid is adequate. Unfortunately, with the pricy rise in the property market, people with an average wage are finding it difficult to buy. Even rents are very high. When you talk about paying €1,000 a month for a decent apartment… how many people earn €20,000 to €24,000 a year? There are also many people buying property to rent, and this is also creating an artificial demand. People think that as many foreign workers are coming to Malta, they purchase a property, fix it up and rent it. But this is only sustainable as long as more and more foreign workers continue to come to the islands.” He questioned whether the country’s infrastructure could handle this, and highlighted the environmental impacts such a situation could create.

“At the moment we are attracting a lot of business in the online gaming industry, in blockchain and Fintech, which is all well and good, but they are very volatile industries.”

Asked what could be done in order to minimise the issues he mentioned and the negative impact of the current economic boom, he said there are measures which can be taken, like pacing the projects approval process.
He said that, in terms of the number of foreign workers, the government needs to study the situation in order to ensure that this policy is not having a counter negative impact on housing markets, unreasonable low wage pressures and rights.

“The Prime Minister had said that we need this in order to sustain pensions, but I question this argument as the current party in government, when they were in Opposition, used to say there was no pension issue. So why is this argument being thrown at us as the reason to accept this economic strategy?”

If one looks at what other countries did when it came to importing labour, they were more restrictive, he said. “First of all we have opened our doors to anyone in the world when we are already in the EU. Obviously, contractors would prefer to bring in workers from outside the EU as wages would be lower. If you leave it in the hands of developers and the business community, they will go for the cheapest option as their motivation is, obviously, to maximise profits. That is why we need a government that will balance the drive for profits with other social aspects that meet our economy.
“In reality, with the present economic growth rates wages should also be increasing more meaningfully, because theoretically increased wage demands are met. This is not happening because in terms of cheap labour the sky seems to be the limit, so the demand and supply is distorted. You cannot have an income policy giving a €1 increase per week increase over three years beyond the COLA.”

The benefits of the economy need to be shared and the pressures managed. Even in terms of the number and size of projects we approve each year, they need to be seen in the context of the wider impact on society, Fenech explains. “This is also in the interest of all the developers as at some point supply and demand will kick in, and, if the demand for such apartments does not meet a situation of over-supply, there could be a significant impact. Are we making the mistakes of the countries that crashed before us?”

If you overheat an economy, you could create income disparities and inflation which does not match wage increases, meaning that people effectively become poorer, and that is a problem the property situation is creating, he said. “Who is addressing the issues of medium-income families who cannot afford purchasing their own home? We need affordable housing for people who used to, traditionally, afford such housing. Home ownership needs to remain at the centre of public policy”

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2019-03-04/local-news/Low-unemployment-does-not-mean-adequate-wages-Former-Finance-Minister-6736204413

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Whatever makes money – Newsbook Blogg by Tonio Fenech for Catholic Voices Malta

Yuval Noah Harari a renowned historian and the author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, in his latest book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century states, “Since the global crises of 2008 people all over the world have become increasingly disillusioned with the liberal story.”

“In 1938 people were offered three global stories (fascism, communism and liberalism),

in 1968 just two,

in 1998 a single story prevailed;

in 2018 we are down to zero.

No wonder the liberal elites, who dominated much of the world in recent decades, have entered a state of shock and disorientation”
Sobering words but evidenced by what we see around us, even countries very close to us countries like Italy, France, the UK, Germany, Austria, Hungry, Poland and others, that are coming to terms with the reality of populism built on fear.

Post the 2008 financial crises, Europe saw millions of people lose their jobs, have their benefits cut, losing pensions, homes and what not, they have found themselves to carry the burden of failed banks and States, betrayed by the democracies the promised heaven on earth on the eve of every election.
Malta came out of this crises relatively untouched. However, post the 2008-2012 crises, we have entered into an era of liberal socio-economic policies, following the steps of countries that have had it good for some time but then failed. We seem to be thinking that we can ride on crest of the wave and never falter.

Money has become king, with no regard for sustainability, equality and human dignity. With complete disregard to the principle of common good, we have gone into a form of Government that is completely hands off, applying “socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor” as Mark Anthony Falzon eloquently put it on The Times recently and running the economy more like a business, or worse a personal business, then a just State.

We seem to have lost the sense of consciousness needed to recognise the new hardships and the income disparities that today’s economy is creating within our society. The extreme low wage pressures due to the ever increase in foreign cheap workers to satisfy the needs of the property developers, and the high property prices caused by the unbridled economic strategy that we have been told to accept if we want to have a pension. I remember these same people telling us that we had no pension problems and that actually their commitment was to increase pensions to 60% of the median income.

AI, Big Data and Biotechnologies

I fear that as a country we are blindly running after so called new technologies without understanding the human questions that these technologies pose, the ethics that needs to surround them and seem content to assuming that only good can come from out of these technologies. Unfortunately, it seems that the only good that we value is the economic value that we hope these bring.

Will AI benefit humanity, or will our lives be decided by our mobile phones, including what we do, where we go, with whom we stay etc, etc. Will AI take over human freedom, because AI knows better?

Quoting from the same book of Yuval Noah Harari “The technological revolution (AI, Big Data algorithms and bioengineering) might soon push billions of humans out of the job market, and create a massive new useless class, leading to social and political upheavals that no existing ideology knows how to handle”.

Does this mean that AI, big data, bioengineering is intrinsically wrong? Certainly NOT. But they can be very wrong if they are in the wrong hands, as we have seen for example with the abusive use of big data, from companies like Cambridge Analytica that is subject to ongoing criminal investigations for the manipulative use of data and using underhanded operations to discredit politicians.

A neo liberal society with these powerful tools can be very dangerous, it will not just be about building concrete in every corner of our island as long as someone makes money, it will be about that dangers of creating a new useless social class as long as it commercially benefits the few. Stuff that usually leads to revolutions.

With this in mind I think the call of the European Catholic Bishops through their document “Rebuilding community in Europe”, in lieu of the 2019 European elections, takes a deeper meaning. The Bishop state, “The EU is facing important challenges. Digitalisation is not just a crisis, but also a mutation. Taking back control of our lives in the face of digitalisation implies decisions to make economy and finance better serve the people, especially the most vulnerable. Digitalisation has an impact on all and everything we know (the future of work, protection of personal data, the multiple uses of artificial intelligence). For COMECE it is fundamental to preserve the centrality of the human person and an approach based on solid ethical frameworks”.
Unless we put back the human person in the centre of our political discourse we are doomed. Today the focus seems too much “money”, “economic growth”, “finance” at the cost of everything else.

This is a reproduction of the post on Tonio Fenech’s Newsbook Blogg –https://www.newsbook.com.mt/blogg/2019/02/25/whatever-makes-money/?lang=en

Tonio Fenech is a member of Catholic Voices Malta

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Press Release: Responsibility, Accountability and Transparency, making the Church the safe place it should be

PRESS RELEASE
20th February 2019

Responsibility, Accountability and Transparency – making the Church the safe place it should be

The “Protection of Minors in the Church” Meeting of Bishops, which will take place in the Vatican, between 21 and 24 February 2019.

Faced with widespread and growing discomfort with revelations of very serious cases of sexual abuse involving members of the clergy, Pope Francis has called a 3-day meeting in the Vatican for Bishops that starts tomorrow the 21st February, 2019. The meeting will discuss the ‘The Protection of Minors in the Church’. The Pope has summoned the highest representatives of the Catholic Church from around the world to give a united response at the universal level. The entire Church must choose to live in solidarity, above all with the victims, with their families and with the ecclesial communities wounded by the scandals. As the Pope has written, ‘If one member suffers, all the members suffer together’. (1 Cor 12:26).

The Church is seeking to send a clear message of its commitment to protect minors, and that this has to be done in a clear and effective manner by the entire community, starting with those in the highest positions of responsibility. More recently, other forms of abuse are coming to light, but all are rooted in the same culture of secrecy, abuse of conscience and abuse of power that are the cancer of clericalism that Pope Francis condemned in his Letter to the People of God issued in August 2018. In it he stated categorically: “to say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to clericalism.” Pope Francis has concretely shown his zero tolerance for abuse by even those in the highest ranks within the Church, most recently by defrocking the ex-Cardinal McCarrick.

Indeed, the theme of the meeting starting tomorrow: ‘Responsibility, Accountability and Transparency’ indicates that the main purpose of the meeting is not to create new procedures, but to undertake a fundamental reform of the quality of leadership in the Church through an internal conversion. In his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis asked Catholics to pray for the meeting which he described as “a powerful gesture of pastoral responsibility in the face of an urgent challenge of our time.”

The three days of discussion will be devoted to a specific topic: “Responsibility, Accountability, and Transparency”. The 190 participants present in the Vatican Synod Hall will hear three reports a day, three of these by women, and all nine interventions will be followed by a question and answer session. Members of the Organizing Committee will also meet privately with representatives of the victims and survivors’ associations. There will be testimonies from survivors and moments of prayer, at the beginning and end of each day. Pope Francis will open the Meeting with an introductory speech on Thursday morning, and close it on Sunday with a discourse after Mass. A Penitential Liturgy will take place on Saturday afternoon, and will be broadcast live.

Catholic Voices Malta joins Catholic Voices International and indeed, the Universal Church and all people of good will in praying for Pope Francis, our Archbishop Scicluna who is in the team leading the meeting, and all the participating Bishops. This great moment of trail for the Church can be a turning point for its purification.

Information on the Meeting
The official website of the “Protection of Minors in the Church” Meeting is www.pbc2019.org and will remain active even after the Meeting is over, as a “tool for developing future initiatives”.

For any questions, information or follow up you can also contact info@catholicvoices.mt

The Letter to the People of God by Pope Francis can be found: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2018/documents/papa-francesco_20180820_lettera-popolo-didio.html

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Reality check for low Sunday Mass attendance. Newsbook Blogg Tonio Fenech

During the past two weeks much has been written about the phenomena of low Sunday mass attendance, what this implies, and possibly who’s to blame. The Humanitarian Association was quick to claim victory for secularism and asserting that Malta is no longer a Catholic country.

While the actions of those who live the Catholic faith are more important that the numbers that go to Church, a proper look at the figures shows a reality quite different of what has been portrayed in general.

The Maltese Archdiocese for the first time, commissioned a Survey to accompany the Census. Some were confused by this and questioned the need. I thought it was well thought. The Census listened to the people coming to Church, the survey sought to listen to the people not coming to Church, equally or possible more important to understand.

The survey carried out by Misco in fact makes some interesting reading. 95% believe in God, something good, showing people still have an openness to the spiritual reality. 92% believe they are Catholic, 7% do not follow any religion while 1% adhere to some other religion. If 95% claim to believe in God, then out of the 7% that do not follow any religion, 1/3 still believe in God, i.e. only 5% of the Maltese population is either atheist or agnostic.

Interestingly these results are not very far from a survey carried out by Malta Today around March 2018, that also found that 93.9% of the Maltese population identified themselves as Catholics. The survey then had also found that 88.8% were against the removal from the Constitution of Catholicism as Malta’s official religion and an even stronger majority was against the removal of the crucifix from public buildings such as schools.

Focusing again on the more recent Misco survey, 93% claim that religion is important to them (66% claiming very important), even if simple maths tells us that not all of these attend mass every Sunday with some actually not attending at all.

Evidently the Maltese Church needs some sole searching to understand why so many believe in God, feel Catholic, see their faith as something important, but do not find Sunday mass as relevant in their journey of faith.

Most Catholics find themselves somewhere in between two extremes. Those who for them Sunday mass observance is the start and end of what it means to be a Catholic, just like ticking the box, or having a membership card, to the other extreme, where I noted many online individual comments to these stories seem to come from, that to be a good Catholic one does not have to go to Church. Only 37% state that one must follow a religion if one believes in God, which possibly explains why the census found that only around 40% attended Sunday Mass on census day.

The survey on the other hand also found that 74% actually go to mass at least once a month, with 50% of the respondents claiming to have attended mass the previous Sunday. Here we find a discrepancy between the census and the survey. The census counted 40% while the survey measured 50%. The survey analysis seeks to explain this by making a mention that there is an element of social desirability bias, i.e. people reply what is expected from them as “good” behaviour. While this may be so, there may be a different reason like people who in a month go to Sunday mass more frequency then once, but not necessarily every Sunday, feel justified to place themselves in the category of regular Church goers rather than occasional.

I also found it very strange that despite all that has been reported, officially by the Church, journalists and various commentators, one important figure seems to have been overlooked. 75% of the respondents claimed to pray daily, 44% of these actually claiming to pray several times a day. This is real hope for our nation.

Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium starts his Apostolic Exhortation with a fundamental invitation to encounter Jesus in prayer, when he states “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.

Professor Mark Anthony Falzon, an anthropologist, in his observations to the Malta Independent of the 3rd February 2019 enforces the understanding that what we are seeing is no necessarily a decline in religious belief but rather a transformation. I quote, “A caveat is in order here, because while that for Sunday Mass attendance is a relatively straightforward statistic which measures practice (you either go or don’t), that for belief in God is an infinitely more complicated one.” In fact, Professor Falzon claims that we are not looking at a decline in religious belief, but rather a change in what people do with their beliefs – a change in religious practice.

This transformation is understandable within a society which is becoming more individualistic, self-sufficient and too busy, losing touch with the beauty of being family, community and shifting towards social media friends, followers and likes.

So why are people not attending? 20% because they do not agree with what the Church or what the priest say, 12% laziness, 12% lack of time, 10% they see Mass not relevant and 10% simply do not they like going to Church.

Indeed 80% have nothing against the Church by are simply not motivated, they are waiting for the Church to give them a reason to go beyond mere rules of observance. They are looking for meaning, a reason to go, in day which like air above the surface of the water, they struggled to reach after a week drowned in the busyness of work, family life, commitments and whatever, and the last thing they want to go to is a place where they sit, detached from those around them, listening to a ritual of prayers and a homily which they struggle or are to sleepy to follow after a Saturday late night (or early morning for some).

Interestingly in the case of the 16 to 24-years age group, there is even more hope and room for outreach then society wants to make us believe.

Disagreement with the Church or the priest is far less significant at 5%, and the real reason is lack of time at 27% and laziness at 22%, if only as parents they find some sort of encouragement, and in the Church provides them the attention, friendships, fun and answers they look for. This should be what mass is all about after all, a meaningful community of friends, in celebration mode, sharing and expressing a joy that comes from understanding what Jesus did and what Jesus still does for us.

I close with the words of Pope Francis in the more recent Apostolic Exhortation Gaudate et Exsultate, where he says, “Far from being timid, morose, acerbic or melancholy, or putting on a dreary face, the saints are joyful and full of good humour. Though completely realistic, they radiate a positive and hopeful spirit. The Christian life is “joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17), for “the necessary result of the love of charity is joy; since every lover rejoices at being united to the beloved… the effect of charity is joy”. Having received the beautiful gift of God’s word, we embrace it “in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 1:6). If we allow the Lord to draw us out of our shell and change our lives, then we can do as Saint Paul tells us: “Rejoice in the Lord always; I say it again, rejoice!” (Phil 4:4).

This is what mass should be all about. Then people will come.

Tonio Fenech is a member of Catholic Voices Malta

This article appeared on Tonio Fenech’s Blogg on Newsbook on the 6th February 2019 https://www.newsbook.com.mt/blogg/2019/02/06/reality-check-for-low-sunday-mass-attendance/?lang=en

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The sacrifice of our children at the altar of money – Legalisation of recreational Cannabis, by Tonio Fenech

What next to be sacrificed at the altar of money in our country?

The good name of our country, our environment, whatever we understand by good governance, national objectivity, our values, business integrity, you name it, as long as it makes money, sell or sacrifice it.

Our children will be the biggest victims of the remorseless neoliberal society we are sowing today.

The fast deteriorating environment to fill the pockets of the few, the spiral housing prices that are making the younger generation think more than twice whether to even consider marrying let alone having a family because they cannot afford it, the false belief and comfort that it will always be easy, the disconnect from the spiritual, making the fruits of a moral society like solidarity, ethics, care and concern for the common good and human dignity alien concepts that are perceived more and more as a hindrance to one’s personal achievements and happiness then what we should aspire for. In essence money is fast becoming the only god we worship … until it lasts.
However, the next sacrifice this county is being asked to offer in the name of money will not be a consequence for our own children, the next sacrifice at the altar of money will be our own children.

Hoping that I am wrong, it appears that the mind of this Government is set on the legalisation of Cannabis for recreational use. Yes, you read correctly, for recreational use not the medical use, despite the emphasis Government made last year when legislating in Parliament in the name of creating jobs.

It seems that the big fish around this industry are telling the Government that this is not enough and that if “we want jobs”, then he needs to legislate also for recreational cannabis. Jobs? Do we really need these jobs? Is the Government not saying we are at full employment? Just days ago the Jobs Plus Chief (former ETC) told us that next year we need to import 13,000 more workers to sustain our economy as is. So jobs for who?

The Government concerned with the political back lash on this issue, is trying to dress its proposal as intended for “harm reduction”. Make no mistake about it, recreational cannabis is not about harm reduction but about a billion-dollar industry that wants to make money, to sell to a bigger consumer base. There is big money around this industry, with the reputable magazine Forbes in an article in March 2018, quoting ArcView Market Research and its research partner BDS Analytics, that over the next 10 years, the legal cannabis industry will see spending growth on legal cannabis worldwide hitting $57 billion by 2027. The recreational market will cover 67% of this consumption; while medical marijuana will take up the remaining 33%.

No wonder the big push is for recreational cannabis.

And who is the consumer target for this industry? Irrespective of the educational programs this Government is promising this year, the target will be our children, our young boys and girls, many in the more challenging phase of their life, pressured with exams, facing uncertainties and failings as much as success and fun. At an age more prone to the manipulative advertising campaigns that come like a tsunami and burry any educational campaigns, once cannabis becomes legal and mainstream.

The Government will tell you that it has a mandate because it bunched the proposal in an electoral program that if you look for it over the internet you will not find.

So I looked for what was said in the time of the last electoral campaign and what I found was the Prime Minister being quoted as saying that it was a high time that the country “holds a mature discussion on marijuana”. (Malta Independent 19th July 2017). A mature discussion is a far cry from electoral mandate.

However, the signs are that the Government’s mind is already set to legalise cannabis for recreational use, it’s just how

October last year, days before the Budget Speech, Parliamentary Secretary Julia Farrugia assured everyone that Malta was in no rush to follow Canada’s legalisation of recreational cannabis, but rather she emphasised that this year we should see an information campaign that highlights the dangers of drug use (MaltaToday, 18th October 2018).

To me the conclusion of that article is, we will educate your children to understand the dangers of cannabis but then we will allow the fat cats to tempt our kids into consumption, the polite word, ADDICTION the crude reality. But of recreational cannabis is safe why do we need of an educational campaign? The answer is simple, because it is not safe, one can easily become addicted, lose motivation for life and live and work only for that addiction and eventually when cannabis will not be enough look for the harder drugs that the criminals (who will always be with us) like vultures willingly provide.

Frankly the mind boggles me, we invest so much in our children, not only as parents, but also as a State from our taxes. A sizeable spend in education (not sure is spending it effectively enough, or indeed if enough, but that’s for another article) from the early years of child care, primary, secondary and a Tertiary system that even pays stipends, scholarship for postgrad, EU programs you name it we give it to them. We pass them through so much stress, (that I am completely against, but that we will be subject of another blog), because we want them to achieve. And when they are of age, we want to give them Cannabis … Seriously?

Dump all our love, protection, investment, to fill the pockets of who this predatory industry?

Last week PBS enters the fray, obviously on the instructions of the strategists thinking how to put in this piece of legislation without causing the stir and concern that indeed it should. PBS tries to feed us that it’s all ok by making a morning breakfast discussion, on the use of recreational cannabis.

Tagging the program as representing different views about the subject, we discover that the only two people participated in the debate, John Ellul, the Chairman for the Open Debate on Cannabis Legalisation, who represents no Open Debate or Society but is the Government consultant on the legislation being prepared to legalise cannabis and Graziella Calleja, ReLeaf co-founder, an organisation set up recently to promote the legalisation of cannabis. These “different” opinions in the program “agree”. Surprise, surprise.

As Lovin Malta’s portal reported “High-Ranking Maltese Official Lays Out Early Proposals to Legalise Recreational Cannabis”. The message John Ellul was sending was not the message of an openness to a mature debate that we were promised to have, but of a Government that already has its mind set with an advanced legislative proposal for the legalisation of recreational cannabis.

The program focused on age limits, giving equal access to cannabis users, registry for users and not on explaining the harm cannabis does, rather its effects were played down or not mentioned. The tack is very shrewd, Government is not interested in having a debate on whether or not we should legalise cannabis for recreational use, Government is simply interested in the how with the least political damage possible.

Clearly we are not in for an educational campaign we are in for a brain washing campaign to tell us it ok.

Will we here the views of Caritas, the Malta Association of Public Health Medicine (MAPHM), professionals and their associations like the Psychiatrists, Psychologists and the Sociologists. Are their opinions more important than those of declared lobbyists who have a big financial vested interest?
If the Government wants to talk about harm reduction, then the last thing to do is get in bed with an industry that thrives on creating addictions. Shut the door, throw the keys and send the pushers in jail.

We don’t need FAKE mantras like cannabis is a substance like many others, yes even cocaine, heroin, synthetic drugs, are substances. Re defining terms will not make cannabis less harmful.

I believe the Parliamentary Secretary when she says she is against the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use. She is a mother; I cannot think of a loving mother believing otherwise. Once we open the door, it will be difficult to close, industry will always come for more. They already want more.
I hope the Government will take heed of the warnings and positions of Caritas and the Malta Association of Public Health Medicine who have clearly expressed concerns on the legalisation of cannabis.

Let’s put the interests of our children first, there place is not the next sacrifice to the alter of money.

In the next blog I will tackle some of the arguments being made, and seek to understand better there implications.

Tonio Fenech is member of for Catholic Voices Malta

This articles has been reproduced from Tonio Fenech’s Blog on the 24th January 2019

 

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