Far from ‘heretical’

Hats off to Archbishop Charles Scicluna’s courageous stance on the thorny priestly-celibacy issue.

In the wake of the hostility Pope Francis has to put up with, especially from those trying to upend his prophetic vision on a synodal Church, Scicluna’s views came across not a moment too soon. Following the long and stifling pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, which, in some ways, more than echoed the modernist witch-hunt of Pius X in the early 1900s, it is high time to reopen the matter. This is not easy at all; prudence is of the essence, lest it degenerates into a veritable Pandora’s box.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna has taken a stance on the priestly-celibacy issue. Photo: Shutterstock.com

A basic query comes to mind: Is it the case that the Church needs to wean itself away from its centuries-old obsession with sex? I think it does. This obsession peaked in 1968 with Pope Paul VI’s ill-fated Humane Vitae. It may be pertinent to recall that when, in the late 1920s, the Church of England’s synod approved the use of contraceptives, Pope Pius XI (Achille Ratti) promptly issued Casti Connubii condemning their use. The sad story surrounding the extended Birth Control Commission set up by Papa Montini, its final report and its sequel, regrettably resonated so very closely with Cardinal Leo Suenens’s comparison with the Galileo affair during his memorable “wildly” acclaimed speech when Gaudium et Spes was being debated during Vatican II.

After considering all this, I cannot help but feeling ill at ease with the prevalent situation where women confess to a male priest: the inherent tinder-box temptations involved are all too evident.

Another exception that irks me is why the sacrament of matrimony should preclude the sacrament of holy orders and vice versa. I find it strange that the administration of one sacrament should prevent the administration of another sacrament. I would have thought that one sacrament enhances the inward grace bestowed by another sacrament.

Of course, there may be other more valid reasons supporting the archbishop’s far from ‘heretical’ stance.

Well done, indeed. Hallelujah!

AMABILE GALEA – Balzan

Partly Jewish ancestry

I recently learned from a London publication that a Jewish custom beseeches the living to remember the dead. Our newspaper In Memoriam notice columns may, therefore, have a Jewish sentimental origin. Furthermore, many Maltese families are probably unaware of their partly Jewish ancestry.

The Sicilian Norman records claim the island’s population at the time consisted of three ethnic/religious groups: Latin/Christian, Arab/Muslim and Jewish. The Normans insisted that all Sicilians were equal under their rule. One expects Malta to have had a similarly diverse ethnic/religious population.

When, centuries later, anti-Semitism grew to feverish levels all over Europe, many Jews in Malta probably “converted” to Christianity to avoid persecution, deportation or even execution.

ALBERT CILIA-VINCENTI – Attard