Thank you from Cuba

Allow me to thank the Mission Fund for the donation of €3,000 received in aid of mission work in Cuba. Of that sum, €2,000 will go to help psychiatric patients with their expenses and the rest to celebrate Masses for the repose of benefactors of the Mission Fund and their families.

I take this occasion to invite all to send used stamps, to donate online or to make a direct bank transfer to one of the following accounts:  BOV: IBAN No MT70VALL22013000000016300798022; APS:  IBAN No MT67APSB77079005231820000820762; BNF:  IBAN No MT94BNIF1450200000000087963101; LOMBARD: IBAN No MT65LBMA05000000000001440822115.

More information may be accessed from the website  www.missionfund.org.mt.

May the Lord bless in His own way the generosity of so many benefactors and may our mutual prayers fortify our hope that the present COVID-19 crisis comes to an end, leaving us, in Pope Francis’ words, better not worse.

Many thanks and may the Lord bless us all.

Fr Paul Buttigieg – Capilla N.S. del Sagrado Corazón, Santa Clara, Cuba

Victims of the 1798 insurrection

With reference to two letters by Charles A. Gauci and Thomas Zerafa (May 30), who seem to confront my academic findings on Malta’s French period, may I point out that my doctoral thesis on the subject is backed by 1,029 references and 33 pages of bibliography, besides 29 pages of appendices. The Malta University Press has just published its third edition.

I find their assumptions on “the slaughter” of executed victims in 1799 and “the death of 20,000 Maltese who died of starvation due to Bonaparte’s invasion of Malta” distorted. 

The unfortunate Dun Mikiel Xerri victims were executed following a military judicial process after being caught possessing arms in a plot against the government. The leaders’ names were disclosed after one co-plotter received a pardon, in practice even today.

 A slaughter did happen however in September 1798 in Mdina when 60 equally unfortunate French soldiers and Maltese French sympathisers were ‘beastly massacred’ by Maltese insurgents, after surrendering. Their corpses were cut open and their livers cooked and eaten in public.

Before slaughtered, the Maltese sympathisers were forced to share in this horrid meal.  To this day, I wonder if Christian Maltese insurgents’ leaders Canon F. X. Caruana and St Joseph Fraternity rector Emanuele Vitale had condoned that. Were mercenaries engaged in the ‘Maltese’ uprising?

The second point to correct is the figure of 20,000, victims of the insurrection rather than the “invasion”. Studies by historian Mgr. Alfredo Mifsud in 1907 and further investigation by myself – quoting sources – show that the amount could be closer to 10,000 (vide App. 2 in my book).  Maltese leaders appear to have inflated the figure when submitting claims to the British authorities for higher war damage refunds.

It might interest readers that today, at 5 pm, TVM will be broadcasting the first in a four-programme series called Malta f’Mixjet Bonaparti, a DeeMedia.tv production, based on my research.

Charles Xuereb – Sliema

Abortion: ‘no’ then ‘yes’

In September 2017, Alternattiva Demokratika’s chairman,  Carmel Cacopardo stated publicly that AD had taken a pro-life stance in the past and was not proposing to change that. Yet, he was suggesting a debate on abortion.

When I asked him in an article in the Times of Malta at the same time  whether he was suggesting the inclusion of abortion-on-demand in our free health services, he quickly replied: “Mifsud seems to have a very fertile imagination as nowhere is that conclusion suggested or even remotely implied.”

Cacopardo as AD chairperson and Godfrey Farrugia as an MP in 2018 and 2019 made pro-life speeches at  pro-life days’ celebrations organised by the Malta Unborn Child Movement.

Now, Cacopardo with MPs Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia, who are still saying  they are pro-life, are clamouring for the decriminalisation of abortion  and that “women should not go to prison for having an abortion and the procedure should be permitted when a woman’s life is in danger, when a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest and when a pregnancy is not viable”.

To me, Cacopardo is clearly after the votes of pro-choice people in the next general election due soon in spite of his declared “pro-life stance”.

The Farrugias have both declared in public they are not contesting the next general election. So why are they clamouring for the decriminilisation of abortion?

All three say they want assistance, and not punishment, to women who have an abortion. 

What they are asking for has been provided  by Dar Ġużeppa Debono of Gozo for the last 30 years and lately also by the Malta Lifeline Foundation with the financial assistance of the government. 

All three should really be clamouring for the expansion of these services to women undergoing difficult pregnancies.

Tony Mifsud – Marsascala

Of cranes and bricks

Kristina Chetcuti’s article, ‘That packet of seeds’ (May 30), brought a smile to my face and happy memories of when I used to drive two of my grandchildren to and from school in Pembroke.

At that time, Mater Dei Hospital was still under construction. Matthew, the elder of the two, loves flags and used to count them while on our way while Simon was more interested in counting cranes.

Although still of a tender age, and cranes were numerous, Simon rarely missed counting one but, when he did, he made a fuss. I wonder if he would manage this today when countless cranes are towering above our heads in every corner of our country!

 Malta has become a whole block of concrete. Gone forever are most historic buildings and our beautiful countryside. Chetcuti is correct when she states that developers are building chicken coops that include bathrooms.

So, I ask: can the environment minister be taken seriously when sending packets of flower seeds to households? Isn’t it a shame that, while his colleague is determined to uproot hundreds of mature trees to widen roads, he is pictured wearing a suit and tie while watering a plant?

Emily Barbaro-Sant – Mosta

Respect for life

I am against the killing of human life. I would like to ask the people who are in favour of abortion when they believe life begins.

The Roe vs Wade judgment which legalised abortion in the US circumvented the question when human life begins and stated that a woman has a right over her body.

But, I say, if a child is being abused by the mother, does the state not have the right to protect the child? I know that when the child is inside a woman’s body the situation is trickier. Without her, the child cannot live. But is s/he not a human person? And is this not the only way human beings are ushered into this world?

I am in favour of what the President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca proposed: that women should not be criminalised due to abortion. Not because it is acceptable to have an abortion but when a woman is criminalised, it is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

No woman in her normal state of mind would kill her baby. She needs help and we should work to avoid the circumstances which lead a woman considering an abortion.

Let’s celebrate life while keeping in mind that we are on a migratory passage to another place soon after.      

Joe Portelli – Nadur

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