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Your correspondent Ms Jane Camilleri Haber, writing (MaltaToday 1 May) on the above subject must, intentionally or otherwise, have misunderstood my earlier writing on the ‘kind of clerics the Church is allowing’ (MaltaToday 17 April).
I assure your contributor that I too am a practicing member of the Catholic Church. While I cannot comprehend what in reality her ‘active’ role within the Church is, whatever this may be, and however good her intention are, she failed to eliminate the confusion and aberrations I referred to in my earlier letter.
I made it clear that I am against the removal of celibacy, as much as I am against the introduction of divorce. So the need of a lecture on the two topics was uncalled for.
Neither, did I question the validity of the sacraments when administered by a cleric whose private life is publicly known to be unbecoming for a cleric, nor am I against one’s dispensation from the priesthood. On the contrary, I am, in fact, recommending that those clerics, who do not no longer feel that they can carry on with their priesthood obligations, should be asked to quit, rather than bring the Church and the priesthood to disrepute.
Ms Camilleri Haber avoided commenting on the real issues I referred to. The persistent contravention of Canon Law, continual public defiance of the Church Authority (hence breaking their vows of obedience), and ignoring Church teachings. Not to mention the public admittance by a number of clerics that they do not follow the law of celibacy, together with the lifestyle of a handful of narcissists clergymen.
That God is the Supreme judge was never at issue either. In fact, He will not only judge His ministers, but each and every one of us, at the time of reckoning.
However, until then, the Church Authority is there to exercise its authority and not to shun the responsibility given to it by Christ. If the Catholic teaching I got in my childhood still holds water, to regain one’s state of grace, that permits one to receive Holy communion, one must not only confess one’s sins, but must also truly repent them.
Once your correspondent had volunteered to endeavour to enlighten your readers, and once the Church Authority prefers to bury its head in the sand, on such important issues, perhaps Ms Camilleri Haber would venture further and let us know her views on whether she considers clerics, who persist, publicly, in defying the Church Authority and/or admit that they do not follow the law of celibacy, to be in the appropriate state of grace, for example, to say mass and obviously receive Holy Communion?
John G Borg-Bartolo
Attard
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