Marsa feast society at odds with Curia over statute

The Ghaqda Festi Esterni Santissima Trinitá of Marsa yesterday appealed "for common sense to prevail" and said it hoped a solution would be found so that the feast, normally celebrated in June, would not be cancelled again this year.

The feast had been cancelled in 2001.

The Curia last week warned that the Marsa Holy Trinity feast celebrations would be cancelled if a new organisation was set up to hold external activities related to the feast.

The Curia said that for a number of years the organisation, which deals with the external activities of the Holy Trinity feast in Marsa, was not operating in a satisfactory manner as it was ignoring the instructions of the parish priest.

To remedy the situation, the Curia had proposed establishing a new statute for the organisation, however, the Church noted that the organisation had ignored the statute and appointed a new committee without the participation of the parish priest.

In reply to the Curia statement, the organisation said the parish priest was present when the new committee was elected and he still held his seat ex-officio on the committee.

The organisation said that at the end of the meeting, the parish priest said he had a draft of a new statute which the organisation had to adopt forthwith and insisted that the matter could not be discussed.

The group argued that this could not be done because the statute had to be approved by the majority of members.

The organisation denied it had ever failed to show respect to the ecclesiastical authorities or that there was "excessive pique. What exists is an element of enthusiasm that exists in other feasts".

The organisation said the parish priest had no authority to dissolve the organisation and they were determined to continue to strive, as they had done for the past 28 years, to improve the feast.