When discussing the need of updating our Constitution, it is being suggested, by some, to change or delete the ‘Religion Clause’ in Article 2.

Last November, Alfred Sant, writing on Facebook, said that once we are in Europe, the rule should be that Malta is a lay country where all religions practised by Maltese citizens are given equal recognition. Sant insisted that laws should be neutral with respect to religion, with none of them being privileged over another.

Such arguments have been going on not only today but even in the past when we were under colonial rule. Mgr Charles Scicluna, in his book Religion and the 1921 Malta Constitution, speaks about the interaction between the need to guarantee religious freedom to everyone and the strong desire of the Maltese of that era to grant special recognition to the Catholic religion in the Constitution.

That our society has changed and has become more pluralistic and multi-ethnic is a fact. With an increase in the number of foreigners working and living in Malta, our society is bound to be affected by their different cultures. We are continuously interacting with these people and, therefore, it is a must that we acknowledge and respect such differences.

The Social Doctrine of the Church, in fact, when speaking about globalisation states: “[Globalisation] must respect the diversity of cultures which, within the universal harmony of peoples, are life’s interpretive keys. In particular, it must not deprive the poor of what remains most precious to them, including their religious beliefs and practices, since genuine religious convictions are the clearest manifestation of human freedom”.

The right to freedom of worship by all religions is an intrinsic right

So, without doubt, the right to freedom of worship by all religions is an intrinsic right that cannot be denied.

In fact, our Constitution in-cludes freedom of conscience and worship and prohibits religious discrimination.

In spite of this recognition, though, we are also conscious of how our Catholic religion is an intrinsic component of our Maltese identity. The feast commemorating St Paul’s shipwreck on our island, which we celebrate yearly with great pomp, is a reminder of how our forefathers treasured our Christian faith and passed it on to us.

The churches, chapels and religious monuments and icons spread all over the island and the religious and national feasts, which are preceded by a religious celebration, vouch for our Christian heritage.

Our national anthem, which is a prayer to Almighty God begging Him to protect our country, is also an intrinsic religious component of our identity.

So, the question we should ask should be: is the affirmation of the predominance of the Roman Catholic religion incompatible with the equality of treatment of other religions? When we are affirming, as is being promulgated in Article 2 of our Constitution, that the religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic apostolic religion, are we discriminating against other religions?

Surely, this is not the case, for we have never prohibited anyone from practising one’s own religion. In fact, the social teaching of the Church speaks with great vigour in favour of freedom of worship.

But besides respecting and acknowledging other cultures and creeds, and besides allowing citizens to practise their own religion, the State should also acknowledge the fact that 92 per cent of the Maltese population adhere to the Catholic religion, as has been shown in the census that was carried out last year.

Mgr Charles Scicluna, commenting on the fact that, in the 1920s, the Roman Catholic Religion Declaration was part and parcel of Maltese identity, argues:

“Religion cannot be separated from the Maltese affirmation of their national identity. Maltese self-awareness and self-consciousness... is a distinctly religious self-awareness and self-consciousness. This means that the Roman Catholic religion was ever seen as an element of the national identity which particularly distinguished us from our colonisers, be it the ‘Republican’ French or the ‘Protestant’ British.”

For the absolute majority of Maltese, our Catholic religion is part and parcel of our make-up; “it is already there; part and parcel of [our] Maltese way of thinking; of [our] Maltese way of being”, to go on quoting Mgr Charles Scicluna. It is not something being coerced but something being explicitly expressed in law.

Let us acknowledge and respect Maltese citizens who do not practise our religion or who practise no religion at all.

Let the State give them the right to worship and practise their beliefs without any hindrance, but let the State also acknowledge that by giving predominance to our Catholic religion in the Constitution, it is simply acknowledging that we Maltese, in our absolute majority, treasure our religion and would want to keep it and pass it on, as is, to our future generations, as we want to do with the other components of our identity, be it our language, environment and culture.