In the September edition of Child magazine, Fr Joseph Calleja says that "children are inherently spiritual and accept God before parents and teachers teach them His name". This is not true! The only reason why Maltese children grow up to believe in a Bambin is because the idea of a Bambin is drummed repeatedly into their pliable minds by parents and priests.

Jean Meslier, a parish priest in 18th century France, wrote in his testament to his parishioners that the idea of God has to be instilled into the child's mind: "All children are atheists - they have no idea of God... Men believe in God upon the word of those who have no more idea of Him than they themselves".

After Fr Calleja says that children are "inherently spiritual", he contradicts himself with the following statement: "Until a child is around six years old, he makes no distinction between fairy tales, magic and God".

Here, at least, Fr Calleja partially agrees with Jean Meslier's observation:

"Our nurses are our first theologians; they talk to children about God as they talk to them of werewolves... Very few people would have a God if care had not been taken to give them one."