Auxiliary bishop Joseph Galea-Curmi on Sunday thanked people in public life who are defending life "clearly and without fear", putting life before their own position.

In an homily during Mass at St John's CoCathedral on the occasion of Life Day 2023, the bishop encouraged these people - who he said were several - to continue to choose what is right even when their choices had consequences.

“You should be proud to be protecting life. There is no honour bigger than this. What is career, position compared to life,” he asked.

President George Vella, who was leading the congregation, has spoken publicly against abortion hoping that a solution would be found to all the points being raised. He has also cancelled a trip to Australia to be in Malta to sign off on the law himself if he agrees with it or resign if he does not.

Galea-Curmi said that the strength of society was calculated from the progress of the weakest.

These, he said, were the unborn, the vulnerable, those who depended on others and those who were unviable for a period but became viable through sustenance.

A progressive society, he continued, ensured that the weakest progressed.

Malta, he said, was going through a decisive moment where a choice had to be made to either protect life from the beginning or not.

"What is proposed so far is to allow the termination of life in a womb in particular circumstances. We have to be clear in what we are saying,” he stressed.

Galea-Curmi noted that terminating the life of the unborn when the mother’s life was in danger had not been an issue in recent years and was not an issue now.

But if the word health was introduced in the law, as is currently being proposed, the whole situation would change, he insisted.

He said that experience in several countries had shown that this word was used to justify abortion.

"We have to learn from experience and not close our eyes to it," he said.

Health had to be safeguarded and protected fully and not used to terminate vulnerable lives.

Earlier, the bishop expressed sorrow at the murder of Turkish woman Pelin Kaya and the loss of life at sea by people seeking to improve their lives.