Gozo Bishop Mario Grech urged the Christian community to “urgently” weigh its attitudes towards irregular immigrants and those who were not in regular marriage.

“Church members, especially priests and those in religious orders, can never eschew ‘street pastoral care’, which in turn brings them close to the people,” he said.

For the power of the Gospel to be believed, the “ecclesial community must embrace today’s lepers” as many were being excluded from the village square or the church parvis.

The faithful had to reassess their attitudes towards sectors of society if they wanted the power of the Gospel to be believed. Mgr Grech also blamed the “ethical void” in Europe as one of the causes for an increase in social injustice.

Marking the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Franciscan rule, Mgr Grech encouraged the faithful to embrace the gospel “in its entirety” to be able to be effective in the way St Francis was in his day.

He conceded that, unfortunately, those assigned with ministering the Word of God “at times hold back from communicating the Gospel in its entirety”.

He invited believers to, like St Francis, “refuse to conform to the customs and rules of society and the Church and provide fresh and new answers to current problems, without sacrificing unity with the Church hierarchies”.