Archbishop Charles Scicluna has hit out against proposed legal changes that will decriminalise the public vilification of religion. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Nobody should expect Christians not to react when the Virgin Mary is insulted, Archbishop Charles Scicluna has said.

In an appeal to “everyone, without exception”, he asked for respect towards the love Christians have for the Virgin Mary.

“My dear brother, if you do not agree with us or do not share our faith, we will not impose our views on you, but this does not give you the right to offend us because your freedom stops when it starts to offend our heart, and he who offends the Virgin Mary is offending us,” Mgr Scicluna said.

He was speaking during a homily delivered at the Dingli parish church on the occasion of the feast of Santa Marija last Saturday.

Mgr Scicluna was referring to proposed legal changes that will decriminalise the public vilification of religion. It is the second time the archbishop has spoken out publicly in this way.

On a previous occasion in Mosta he said Parliament could do what it wanted, and “we too will do what we want when the time comes.”

Last month Justice Minister Owen Bonnici presented a package of laws amending the Criminal Code. These included the removal of laws dating back to 1933 that punished the vilification of religion. The Bill also proposes the decriminalisation of pornography.

Mgr Scicluna has issued a rallying call in reaction to these changes and, in Dingli, he insisted that pornography offended the person and God’s image.

“We are all weak, victims of curiosity; but our curiosity does not justify our sins. We must confess and try and control our curiosity and lust,” he said.

Your freedom stops when it starts to offend our heart, and he who offends the Virgin Mary is offending us

But Mgr Scicluna also used the occasion to warn against surrogacy, a proposal floated recently by the Labour Party’s women section.

The proposal urged the government to enact changes to the law on in-vitro fertilisation and make it possible for infertile or gay couples to make use of surrogacy – the use of another woman’s womb to grow an embryo and have a baby. Nisa Laburisti also proposed making embryo freezing, egg and sperm donation legal.

Mgr Scicluna told his congregation that a woman’s womb was not “a garage” in which somebody else’s egg and sperm are parked.

“The womb is a gift of maternity and that which is born inside the womb develops a strong bond with the woman... This is why we tell the clever professors, no, even if you can do it, a woman’s womb is not for sale and neither for rent,” Mgr Scicluna said.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com