Vittoriosa oratory needs attention

Taking the cue from Emily Barbaro-Sant’s appeal with regard to Speranza chapel (November 28), we, likewise, would like to draw attention to the oratory of St Joseph in the precincts of St Lawrence church, Vittoriosa. 

Though no longer used for religious functions, it houses the parish museum, run by volunteers, where innumerable historical artifacts are displayed. 

The oratory edifice in neoclassical architecture has an impressive parvis consisting of a semi-circular flight of steps leading to the main door.

St Joseph’s oratory still bears the marks of the damage sustained during the war.

On the east side of the façade there are still the remains, marked by a marble tablet, of the old Greek church of Our Lady Damascene. The oratory is served with a beautifully decorated side door facing Vittoriosa Square.

The building is in bad need of restoration.

It still bears the marks of damage suffered during the war. Despite our fervent, yet unsuccessful, pleas to the cultural authorities to intervene and save this heritage, we trust that, like the many praiseworthy restoration initiatives on churches and chapels around Malta, it will also get to be the turn of the Vittoriosa oratory.

Lawrence Zahra, Vittoriosa Historical and Cultural Society – Vittoriosa

Serious PN malady

One cannot imagine a clearer example of how totally negative, destructive and grossly exaggerated are the supposed leader of the opposition’s arguments than when he lately defined the many millions spent on the building of new schools and the total refurbishing of old schools as “just a coat of paint”.

Bernard Grech’s infantile argument is the latest in a string of similarly hilariously ridiculous arguments which have come out of previous PN leaders and exponents.

Who can forget Simon Busuttil’s prediction that “if Labour wins the election, they will soon be seeking a bailout”? Instead, the incoming Labour government, under Joseph Muscat’s leadership, started producing surplus budgets. And, now, under Robert Abela’s leadership, the EU has just predicted that Malta’s economy in 2024 will experience the highest growth in the EU.

How about former PN shadow health minister Maria Deguara, predicting at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that “Malta would only be receiving 45,000 COVID vaccines”? Instead, besides succeeding to obtain millions of vaccines for all the people residing in Malta, our government even sent many thousands of vaccines to other, much poorer countries in Africa and Asia.

This obsession to try and belittle, or even ridicule, the Labour government’s outstanding achievements is a very serious malady which the PN still cannot get rid of. Which keeps making it difficult for intelligent voters to consider the PN as an alternative government.

Eddy Privitera – Naxxar