Pastoral letter for LentA strong invitation to prayer, fasting and charity along with an exhortation to believers to render concrete testimony of their faith. This, in brief, the content of the Pastoral Letter for Lent written by the archbishop of Malta Msgr. Paul Cremona, and by the bishop of Gozo Msgr. Mario Grech. “May this period serve to comprehend what is going wrong in our lives. The Lord wants us to turn to Him because through Him and with Him our life can be different and better. Prayer, fasting and charity are three weapons, which the Church, right from the beginning of its history presented to us, because to do good one has to struggle and be strong enough spiritually. Without God’s power we shall be weak. And it will be easy to be carried away by the currents, and for our faith to be reduced to nothingness.” The two bishops point to the need to keep “life and faith bound together and nourish the latter with a sound catechesis and a new evangelization. Because if we do not grow in faith, even our own religion can be a distraction in our life. During Lent, words like slavery, desert, freedom and exile will frequently be echoed in the Word of God, which we shall hear. For us, these will not only be words or an experience of someone away from us”. We risk failing “when we are confused on which are the values that can keep us united, and which are the virtues that can support us”. “Compared to neighbouring nations, we are still a very religious race. But we wish that what we profess will be put into practice more concretely and be seen in our actions. Our Country is asking those who state they have faith, that they give an uncompromising and clear witness resulting in actions that make the Gospel of Jesus still more credible. And this is the service and orientation that the Church wants to offer to society that frequently loses its bearings”.”We habitually pride ourselves on our generous and open heart as a nation or on our identity as a Christian people. But today this is not enough. The forces that surround us are strong. Evil is very strong. Sin still exists and where it abunds, it dominates the heart of man. Our choices, the compromises of values we embrace, our usual lifestyle, all can, as they did to the Jews of old, lead us to an exile similar to theirs. Compromise weakens the fibre of our lives, that of our family, and of society, and brings destruction in our hearts and destroys identity. We bishops are witnessing and feeling the urgency of a sound catechesis at every level, from the young in schools and parishes to old age. Today, God is being ignored. Many people live in a way as if God does not exist. We wish to extend our Lenten invitation even to those who feel far away, so that they will rediscover God’s face and heart. We also exhort those who feel they are committed Christians, to discover more the sense of mission towards those who feel that God does not make much sense in their lives”.The two prelates also made an appeal in view of the forthcoming elections affirming the wish for “reciprocal respect and love in discourses and judgments. Diversity – Msgr. Cremona and Msgr. Grech wrote – is an important element in a democracy. But political maturity demands that the discussion is more concentrated on arguments and on points of view than on persons. As much as our country, being so small, can gain if partisanship does not go to our head, in the same way we have much to lose if we persist in politicizing everything”.Bishops Commission for EuropeMalta’s Bishops Conference nominated Msgr. Joseph Farrugia, priest in Gozo, at the head of the Episcopal Commission “Church in Malta and in Europe. The “Church and European Community” Commission, established in 1993 with a decree by archbishop Joseph Mercieca, had the task of studying and referring to the bishops of Malta and Gozo the following questions: what would be the repercussions of Malta’s entry in the EU and which contribution, starting from its solidarity commitment, could Malta’s Church give to society and Churches in Europe. In 1997 the Commission was renamed “The Church in Malta and in Europe” in order to extend its perspectives and include in its frame of action also other European institutions, like the Council of Europe. The Commission supports the work of the bishops whenever an evaluation of EU events or news is required. It also assesses EU opportunities for the Church, its institutions, associations and movements. It coordinates the participation of the Church of Malta and Gozo in the Malta in Europe Forum coordinated by the Government in its capacities as consultive body within European policy and legislation framework. Finally, the Commission coordinates participation of the Church of Malta and Gozo to European ecclesial institutions, in particular at COMECE, the Episcopates Commission of the European Union. Malta’s Bishops Conference became a member of COMECE in April 2004, during a celebration of European episcopacies in Santiago di Compostela.
