A mission in Georgia
We, the Buhagiar family, from the second Neocatechumenal community of the parish of Mosta, have been living in Tbilisi, Georgia, with some of our children for the last 16 years.
We would like to express our thanks to all the benefactors who showed their generosity and love for the mission through the Mission Fund.
As a family, we have travelled here for the sole purpose of living among others, to bear witness and to help and encourage the Christian community by evangelising, catechising all the sacraments and being witness to God’s love every day. We are very grateful to assist and witness this work of the Lord in his field. Thank you.
We promise our daily prayers to all the numerous benefactors of the Mission Fund, deceased and alive.
The public may contribute by sending used stamps or donations to the Mission Fund.
Donations may be sent online or by direct bank transfer on one of these following accounts: BOV: IBAN No: MT70VALL220130000 000 16300798022; APS: IBAN No: MT67APSB77079005231820000 820762; BNF: IBAN No: MT94BNIF1450200000000087963101; and Lombard: IBAN No: MT65LBMA05000000000001 440822115.
More information may be found on the website: www.missionfund.org.mt.
JOSEPH, LORNA AND FAMILY BUHAGIAR – Tbilisi, Georgia
What ‘beauty’ is all about
The writer of the leader that appeared on Christmas Eve, December 24 – ‘Decade of progress and regression’ – must deserve the ‘Sentence of the Year’ award for his “Our society generally has difficulty distinguishing that which is beautiful from that which is ugly”.
How true! Even as officialdom boasts and brags about what is being done in the world of education, the true outcome remains what is said in that sentence and it cannot be otherwise when so many people in power, especially all those at the top of Malta’s planning and environment authorities, do nothing (or simply don’t know how to do otherwise) to quell this current headlong plunge into ever more uglification of the country.
These people are simply drugged into the practice of issuing ever more and more building and construction permits and they simply don’t know what ‘beauty’ really is.
Some erudites are resorting to record for posterity the beauties of the country which are, slowly but surely, being lost to the builders’ and developers’ tools and monstrosities. An example is the beautiful book Maltese Facades – A Photographic Anthology by Charles P. Azzopardi and Conrad Thake.
But the masses walk on past the cranes and high-rise scars and fail to appreciate what is being done to the body and life of this once pearl of the
Mediterranean. Need we ask why? The answer is simple: over several years, our education system has produced, as the Times of Malta leader said, more than one generation of people who cannot make the distinction between ugliness and beauty. And from one of those generations have come many of today’s decision-makers.
JOHN CONSIGLIO – Birkirkara
A great loss
It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Albert Fenech.
After some years as a visiting cardiologist from the United Kingdom, treating many patients, always with a kind and sympathetic demeanor, Albert established the first Maltese-led Cardiology Unit at St Luke’s Hospital, providing a year-round service. Under his guidance, the unit went on to provide cutting-edge procedures on a par with the best elsewhere.
In 2002, he was made a member of the National Order of Merit on Republic Day for his services to the country. He was founder president of the Maltese Cardiac Society, which presented him with the society award in recognition of his services to cardiology.
Fenech was elected to parliament in 2013 and always tried to contribute to improve the cardiological services for our patients. He has gone to a better place and will be sorely missed by many. May he rest in peace.
TERENCE TILNEY – honorary secretary, Maltese Cardiac Society, Mater Dei Hospital, Birkirkara.