Emotional reaction

Moral convictions have this intuitive power that makes them feel as if they must be true. This explains why/how anti-choice people like John Azzopardi (February 18) perceive the immorality of abortion to be a fact when, actually, it is a matter of their subjective state of mind and what they attach moral significance to.

For the record, the evidence that 19 out of every 20 women do not regret having abortions is found in the study of Rocca et al (Emotions and decision rightness over five years following an abortion: an examination of decision difficulty and abortion stigma) published in Social Science & Medicine, Volume 248, March 2020, 11270 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619306999).

Azzopardi and his ilk feel they already know everything that they need to know about abortion based on a strong emotional reaction to the topic rather than facts.

Readers beware.

Isabel Stabile, Doctors for Choice Malta – St Julian’s

Church of the future

After the result of the church-attendance survey of three years ago, the Church in Malta experienced another jolt due to the coronavirus this past year.

Yet, all churches have been very cautious and prudent in welcoming parishioners back over the past few months. We are forever grateful to all priests, sacristans, volunteers and helpers who keep everyone safe while providing Mass and conducting funerals as we wait anxiously for things to get back to ‘normal’.

I want to highlight two issues for consideration by the Church in Malta.

With only 12 seminarians studying at the moment, the presbyterate population faces a drastic decrease over the next 30 to 40 years. Thus, there will come a time when the Church in Malta will have to import priests from foreign countries. We’ve had the luxury of many priests serving our churches in the past but , down the road, we have to face the fact that there won’t be enough priests to celebrate Mass in Maltese.

That means priests from Africa, India, the Far East and other countries will have to help us in times of dire need. So my suggestion is to gradually introduce more Masses in English to be celebrated in all the parishes across the Maltese islands. This will have to be in place before we are faced with a lack of available Maltese-speaking priests. Yes, we’re talking about 20 to 30 years from now but isn’t it better to be prepared than being surprised and taken aback when very few of us are still around?

Another issue to be considered is the priceless help of lay people in our parishes. Just a few weeks ago, Pope Francis, through a motu proprio ‘Spiritus Domini’, established that,  from now on, the ministries of lector and acolyte are to be open to women.

There is nothing new about women proclaiming the Word of God, acting as altar servers and distributing communion. In many communities throughout the world these practices are already authorised by local bishops. Now, in the wake of the discernment which has emerged from the last Synods of Bishops, Pope Francis wanted to formalise and institutionalise the presence of women at the altar when he affirmed “the co-responsibility of all of the baptised in the Church  and the mission of the laity in the work of evangelisation”.

Since I served for 35 years in various US parishes, we used acolytes very effectively and their liturgical presence was appreciated and admired by everyone.

Of course, we only had men until now but, besides helping out with distributing communion, they used to set up the altar for Mass at the Offertory and help out with the cleaning up after communion. They would also lead benedictions when a priest was not available, distribute ashes on Ash Wednesday, help coordinate weddings and funerals  and take more initiatives approved by the Church.

All this will be following a period of training, after which they will be officially installed by the bishop. The ministry of acolytes and lectors has, so far, only been given to candidates for the priesthood. I know there are many reliable and dedicated lay people yearning to help and serve in these roles if given the opportunity.

And what a blessing it would be for our Church to have a number of instituted lay acolytes and lectors serving in our parishes! This especially in view of my first point mentioned in this letter.

Fr Julian Cassar – St Julian’s

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