News • December 07 2003

Dirty words

Harry Vassallo
Chairperson
Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party
I have no wish to cross swords with Fr Vanni Xuereb over the issue of the reference to Christianity in the EU Constitution (‘Christianity - a 'dirty' word’ 30 November).
I mentioned the matter in passing while criticising the majoritarian parties for laughable hypocrisy in trying to seem more Catholic than the Pope over the issue.
It is my humble opinion that the Church is in error in insisting on the insertion of a reference to Christianity in the EU constitution which is a legal document designed to govern the civil relationships of hundreds of millions of people, many of them non-Christians.
Some of the existing member states such as France have explicitly secular constitutions and future member states such as Albania and Turkey have a predominantly non-Christian population. The EU Constitution project proposes to embrace this religious diversity extending an experiment in peace and freedom which has met with unsurpassed success for the past 50 years. I do not feel very strongly about this and I am prepared to watch the MLPN antics with mild amusement.
With both the majoritarian parties seeking popular acclaim for supporting the Vatican, surely Fr Xuereb could afford to tolerate my meek dissent. It would be so easy to pretend to agree. Is that what the Church wants?
I would welcome an invitation to debate the contribution of PreChristian religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam to European values. It is a matter too long and too deep to be dismissed in a few lines in a newspaper. Perhaps Fr Xuereb as the President of the Commission for the Church in Malta and Europe at the Maltese Episcopal Conference can take it upon himself to organise such a debate. I promise to be open to conviction.
Meanwhile I would welcome and accept his apologies for implying that Christianity has become a dirty word for some politicians myself included. As a politician I resent the unfair attempt to pressurise me. As a Catholic I am deeply hurt by this attempt to demonise me by a man of the cloth. By such actions he does greater harm to the Church than any he may cause me.
For me Christianity will never be a dirty word. From Fr. Xuereb of all people I expect tolerance and moderation of speech. Had he been a political opponent I would have shrugged off the slur. I have never sued anybody for libel. From a priest of my own religion I expect much better.