Magistrate Herrera at the procession of Our Lady of Sorrows in Valletta
Ah, what a good woman she is! How can you say that she’s not the best sort of Maltese Catholic – or for that matter, the best sort of Maltese hypocrite?
Let’s see how this particular brand of Catholicism works. You spend years cheating on your husband, then you dump him and run off with another woman’s husband, leaving her alone with a baby. You set up home together in what the Catholic Church perceives to be a permanent state of adultery and mortal sin.
You lie in court under oath. You try to have those who criticise you imprisoned. You break every rule in the book of ethics. You dine out with defendants in court cases which you are hearing, and invite the plaintiffs to your home for drinks.
You do what you can for a little bit of money and God help anyone who you think has called you a liar, because the next thing they know, they’re being interrogated down at the police station.
But as long as you walk behind the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the most public of the island’s processions in the capital city, then you’re a good Maltese Catholic.
Yes, my dear, you really are.
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What the effing hell does she think she’s doing?
There is no such thing as religion anymore. Money is the new god of our times. Why do you think we celebrated Our Lady of the Dollars yesterday?
All we need to find out now is that she was barefoot and had chains round her ankles.
That’s in Mosta next Friday. She’ll be wearing a hood though.
Maybe she saves her chains for the bedroom.
If this isn’t a case of rank hypocrisy and transparent double standards then what is?
Perhaps just a public acknowledgment that she – like me, like Daphne and like all the readers of this blog – is a sinner in need of repentance and redemption?
Manuel,
The old don’t-touch-me-I’m-a-repentant-sinner routine doesn’t work any more. If you were sincere you’d be the first to tell us what she has to do to gain redemption.
A sinner in need of redemption? Please!
Who the hell cares about her immortal soul and where she’ll end up in the after life?
She’s a magistrate who’s broken practically every rule in the ruddy book – and, no, I’m not talking about the bible. Her pious sanctimoniousness just rubs every one’s nose in it.
This is just another one of those instances where she thinks she can do what she likes in her ‘private’ life and that it’s nobody’s damm business. The hell it isn’t.
This is just another example of how she thinks that she can do as she pleases whatever the rules of the game.
Sinners “in need of redemption” simply need to “sort things out” between themselves and their conscience, and maybe – just maybe – with their confessor (if they believe in having one).
Making a public spectacle of yourself like that is nothing but hypocrisy.
The sinner in need of redemption theory is a fundamental tenant of Catholicism.
But if this is really what she’s after then she should first resign from a magistrate, then drop the case against Daphne and then spend some time praying. Otherwise it is just what Daphne described as an effort to be perceived as a good Maltese Catholic, which is not the same as being a good Catholic.
Not me.
@ Antoine Vella,
She’s human – ergo, a sinner. Enough?
Re the lack of sincerity: you know very well that in other fora I’ve expressed the view that the magistrate should resign. However, she should at least be allowed to practise her devotions – like 3/4 of the Maltese do on that particular day – without being harassed.
The holier-than-thou people of my generation are the ones that do everything “ghal ghajn in-nies”, and yet have the messiest private lives.
Jekk vera temmen b’Alla, bih ma’ tidhaqx.
I thought she practised her devotions in Siggiewi.
The magistrate is, I believe, Valletta born and bred.
Since when is participating in the Duluri Procession an attempt to appear ‘holier-than-though”?
[Daphne – No, Manuel, she was born and bred in Stella Maris parish, Sliema, just like me, and where her mother still lives, just like mine.]
@john – The procession on l-Gholja tas-Salib is next week.
@Mandy. I see. Festi are not my forte. Well, she’s got a busy week ahead of her, what with hikes up the hill and one thing and another.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1)
Maybe that’s how slavery was possible.
Yes, it is true that we should not judge. But there is something called decency. Given all the stories and news surrounding her for the last couple of months, she should have stayed and prayed at home or in some quiet chapel.
Like the Pharisees did!
She went to be seen.
Perfect comment! She should not judge others or else anyone has permission to judge her…..guess she should resign if she isn’t comfortable then.
It’s a free country, Laurence Cole. In a free country public figures are judged.
Matthew would have had a thing or two to say about people who screw the system to their advantage and everyone else’s detriment.
Talking about the magistrate’s official work, I take it.
No, Laurence Cole. We don’t want her to judge anymore!
Sanctimonious hypocrisy. The PN excels in this too. It is about time that Malta stops kowtowing to the church.
Paul, how do the political parties come into this, exactly?
Of course political parties come into this religious issue.
They use religion to their advantage which affects non-religious people.
At least Mintoff did not exploit religion, he sent the church packing. Well Mintoff was nasty to everyone anyway, so nothing unusual there. I wish the PN would take a leaf from Mintoff’s book.
I’m not sure this is quite correct Paul. Prior to the 1971 general election it was convenient for Mintoff to sign up to some sort of ceasefire with the Church to help him win that particular election. Having won the vote he then went on to relieve it of substantial tracts of land and threaten to close the faith schools down- “jew b’xejn jew xejn”.
All I’m saying is that political parties have used religion to their advantage but also that Mintoff exploited religion and the Church in his time and for his purposes.
There is no doubt that Malta kowtows to the church. Take a newly installed or retiring prime minister or president. The first thing they do is run off to the Vatican (with extended family in tow) to kiss the pope’s ass. It’s sickening.
@John
That’s more for a free last public-funded trip than to kowtow to the church.
@Lawrence Cole
Are you addressing Magistrate Herrera?
Rover :”threaten to close the faith schools down- “jew b’xejn jew xejn”.
Mistoqsija: L-iskejjel tal-Knisja huma b’xejn bi Gvern Nazzjonalista fil Gvern? Nisthajjel taf li iva. Mela x’kinet li ma ridux ikunu b’xejn fi zmien il-Labour. ?
Ipokrizija.
Prinz Eugene
Your Highness, church schools are not free at all: we are paying for them through our taxes. This arrangement was not part of Labour’s “war on church schools”, as KMB called it.
Ejja ha ninkurunak, Prince Eugene. Assume the position. Hawnhekk kocc Roundheads anti-Monarkisti indominjati ha ssib.
Is-soluzzjoni tafu x’inhi? TAX THE CHURCH. It has a lot more money than any Colombian cartel and leaves a hell of alot more bodies in its wake.
U t-toroq tuhom it-tarmak dejjem, mhux biss meta jkun ha jzurna l-Papa. ‘Ipokriti’ nghida JIEN, carnal.
I wonder where Robert was.
Kien wiehed mir-reffiegha tal-vara tghid?
Maybe he was babysitting those who are too old to be babysat.
I wonder what clothes she wore for the procession.
Doesn’t she realise that the less she is seen the better? And she chose the most popular procession on the island.
Taf toqghod ftit lura jew iktar tisfida?
I guess she saw Ms. Alamango’s picture and decided she wanted a piece of the action. Where better to get groped than in large tightly-packed crowds?
Born again – nice try.
She looks more interested in who is around and watching her; she does not look to be in a very solemn mood.
Was this photo taken by Jo Meli? He too was there, hovering in front of the statue snapping photos and wearing a black shirt.
Makes for good reading under the chapter dedicated to Applied Piety in the catechism books of Catholic Malta. According to the same books madam has every chance of redeeming herself next Friday, under a white sheet dragging chains of penance. Dare I say a true case of Between-the-Sheets then?
@Manuel tal-Pjazza ( formerly Manuel)
Pity then that she didn’t take her brother with her.
Perhaps she thought he might start shouting F’GH*X Gonzi.
Consuelo u Kermit qed jahsbu li se jilghabu bil-mentalita’ tan-nies bhal ma’ kien jaghmel Mintoff. Imma dak iz-zmien spicca.
Not against anyone going to the procession, for whatever reason they might have. What I am against is those who choose the most popular of processions just TO BE SEEN. Id-duluri kullimkien tohrog, u kwazi f’ kul rahal, so, considering circumstances u jekk riedet veru tmur, imissha ghazlet wahda inqas taghti fl-ghajn. Il-Madonna ta’ kullimkien l-istess. Ghax fejn marret hi, taf certa li biex tigi ikkritikata marret. Ma nafx jien, kultant nahseb li daw in-nies apposta jaghmlu, biex jistidnuha.
U tal-bidnija rat il-processjoni mill-gholi ittir fuq xkupa. Mhux gidba din, verita, min hu possedut…….
You silly people who keep on referring to Daphne as a witch as though it is an insult.
Have you never watched Charmed (The good witches who go against all odds for the sake of good vs evil) or Bewitched (another good witch).
You are just a bunch of dumb wits.
Forsi kienet qed taghmel xi overtime imkahla ma’ xi bank il-qorti.
She is a public sinner. At least Robert Musumeci was not with her to make the parody complete. Or has she repented?
To be honest, although I completely dislike the magistrate and her doings, I however think that now this is being taken too far.
I agreed with the blogs when they uncovered all the code of ethics she was breaking, however she’s not breaking any code of ethics by following a procession.
Now if she really believes or not, it’s her problem – her conscience.
I think with all the bull that Malta faces on a daily basis and with all the other issues that can be tackled, this is slightly out of its place.
I know that this is showing how much of a hypocrite she is, but really, I think all of those who have been following the blogs since January or February, know that she is, and anyone reading this for the first time won’t really understand it anyway, so I think that more important things can be written about in this blog.
No, no, no! It’s not being taken too far; it seems the authorities have not taken any concrete steps to rectify the situation. If pressure is not maintained, everything will be swept under the carpet and everything forgotten.
The magistrate should have resigned by now. Daphne would have lost her battle if she does not keep up with this.
In this case, Daphne is right to bring this event to public attention.
On a completely unrelated matter, here’s an elf that has come out from under his stone to ‘sprout’ his gripe –
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100327/local/monument-to-well-known-sculptor-unveiled
oomment
Anthony Mizzi(1 hour, 27 minutes ago)
Hopefully , will not be a Monument on Wheels and will not end up like his Sette Giunjo Monument with the damage incurred on it when it was moved where it MAJESTICALLY stood at St. George’s Square to a place still to be decided , and be replaced by water sprouts.
Fil-karnival kullhadd xitan. Fir-Randan, kullhadd qaddis.
OK .. the magistrate might be a hypocrite for attending (or showing off at) the procession – but who took the photo and sent it to Daphne isn’t? Well both the magistrate and the “spy” are both typical Maltese Catholics.
[Daphne – The person who took the photograph wasn’t there as a devotee but as a reporter.]
The problem is that you cannot pick and choose parts of any religion to suit you. You either go the whole hog or nothing at all.
Did you say “hog”?
Go the whole hog? Attenta, ghax Kermit forsi jahseb li qeghda tindirizza lilu.
“cum autem perseverarent interrogantes eum erexit se et dixit eis qui sine peccato est vestrum primus in illam lapidem mittat”
– John 8:7
ghada ma waslitlekx it-traduzzjoni bil-Malti tal-Bibbja?
To clarify – the above is not me.
Peccatos ghandi kemm trid jien, imma il lapidem xorta im-mittathiela lil ippokrita bhala.
“She who wants to make believe she is repentent jeww xi qaddisa, ma ddahqx nies. She stops deciding cases and gets out of the court rooms, because she does not deseve to be there”
– Alan 1:1
Alan, using Maltastar’s language, and coming to the point:
She should the Magistrate cease.
Ora pro nobis…..
Perhaps she is a repentant sinner; it’s not for us to decide. Let’s hope she is truly one.
But then is she prepared to redress the injustices and pain she caused by her action in her private life and by the controversial court decisions she is being investigated for?
If Consuelo attended the procession in true repentance for her sins, then she joined thousands of like sinners who may have had sincere intentions.
If the magistrate is sincere, then she has to stop sinning otherwise her ‘repentance’ is worthless.
Assuming that she is truly sorry for cheating on her spouse, taking up with another cheat, living together with him, allegedly perjuring herself, not once but twice, then come Monday she should resign, instruct the police to lay off Daphne and send Robert packing.
X’ammukkjata dik il-purcissjoni! Min-naha l-ohra, CSH mdorrija f’dawn l-ammukkjate, igifieri SANGUE FREDDO!
Tuni mument ha nirrimedja.
Reminixxenza: Jiena wkoll kont niehu sehem fil-purcissjonijiet, nibla l-ostja u niddiskuti l-kuncilji Vatikani, izda dan qabel ma ltqajt ma dal- erba puttane skatenate li inizjawni ghall- erotizmu sataniku.
Skuzawni izda ha jkolli nitlaqkom. Ghandi ‘society dinner’ fejn gejt inkarigat nimmedja dibattitu fuq ix-xizma ta’ Stromboli tal-1456. Preposto cameriere del soglio pontificio, agli’ ordini! Dom Perignon? Versare, prego. M’ghidtlikx tieqaf.
Qed tikkwota lill-kbir Alberto Sordi hux veru? “Sapete che io sono stato allevato da quattro ‘nurses’? Puttane scatenate che mi hanno iniziato all’arte dell’erotismo.” Xi haga hekk, le?
@Daphne
Mind your own business can you? Can you declare that you are 100% Catholic? Alas, i am not interested but for your bloggers.
raymond spiteri FGURA
[Daphne – Can I declare that I am 100% Catholic? Actually, sir, I repeatedly declare the very opposite, but obviously, you people don’t read anything and prefer to go on rumour and gossip, like your forebears in their pre-literate society.]
Ronzo Adriano Celentano Catorzo, NAPOLI
Ridateci la maggioranza! Napoli bella. Napoli sfizziosa. Napoli du zucchero!
sottotitoli in cineze.
The magistrate has Malta’s police force fighting her case.
“You dine out with defendants in court cases which you are hearing, and invite the plaintiffs to your home for drinks.”
Anyone wishing to scratch my car so that I can take him to court? They get a free dinner, and I get a free drink.
Wara id-Duluri tal-Belt ikun hemm partita nisa minn nahha ta’ isfel li jkunu jimxu hafjin bhala penitenza. Il-magistrat kienet hajfa? Saqsieh ukoll dak ir-reporter jekk Robert kienx qieghed jimxi ghal rkubtejh forsi ghalhekk ma deherx fir-ritratt?
I have never been to this particular Valletta procession, but I once heard that all the prostitutes from Strait Street used to be and probably still are the first people walking barefoot behind the statue. What a hypocrital country. L-aqwa li gej il-Papa u kulhadd sejjer jxejjer fuq il-fosos. U halluna, ja gdur.
Let’s say she made the first step: repent.
After that she has to repair.
If one steals and repents, one has to give back what was stolen.
Kieku kull min huwa subajh dritt biss setgha jattendi nassigyrak li d-Duluri lanqas min jerfaghha ma kien ikun hemm!
Perhaps she went to the procession to ask for a miracle to get her out of the mess she put herself into when she had the police prosecute Daphne.
@Antoine Vella
She and any one of us has to realize that GOD is love that and He is willing to wash away all of our sins but ONLY if we are willing to free ourselves from them through confession and by doing all that is within our capacity, 1) not repeat what we have done and 2) to offer remedy to our wrong doing.
@La Redoute
“Who the hell cares about her immortal soul and where she’ll end up in the after life?”
Those who are true Christians do care. Our lady at Fatima said that many souls go to hell because there is no one who pray for them.
… and never forget that Jesus condemned the sin not the sinner.
You’re concerned about her immortal soul. I’m concerned about her earthly obligations. While you’re busy rescuing her spirit, perhaps you can remind her of what those are:
http://www.judiciarymalta.gov.mt/code
La Redoute, I never said that justice should not be served. Justice must take its course and hopefully in the foreseeable future otherwise these corrupt practices will prevail.
All those who are into religion and quoting the Gospel would do well to remember that Christ did not approve of the Pharisee who went right up to the most prominent place in the temple to show his piety.
True, but Christ was also God and thus could recognise their evil intent. We can’t pass judgment on a person because, unlike Christ, we don’t know what’s in his/her heart.
Alan D
You don’t know your Gospel. First of all, the Pharisee was not described as having any evil intent, so you’ve got that bit wrong. He was mentioned in a parable which, let me remind you, was a story intended to teach us how to behave. Jesus stigmatised the actions of the Pharisee so that we would know that it is wrong to do what he did.
Indeed.
Not being endowed with the gift of knowing what lies in people’s hearts, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Hi Daphne, usually I enjoy your post, but today I think you have overstepped your mark. When the Samaritan was brought before Jesus, He said: ‘He, who has never sinned, throw the first stone’.
I didn’t write the quotation as I do not have my Bible handy. I am not trying to defend anyone, but religion is very personal and should not be used for mockery.
[Daphne – I almost give up.]
Some people twist religion to suit them.
The photograph in itself mocks the magistrate.
maria debono
We’re in the realm of DIY gospel now: it wasn’t a Samaritan but an adulteress which, some might be tempted to say, is a particularly apt analogy.
Some might also be tempted to say that it is the magistrate herself who is making a mockery of religion.
Oh, personal, eh? Then she should have stayed home and listened to the rosary on RTK.
You idiot. Religion is about as personal as competitive poker playing in Las Vegas. Open your f***ing eyes and look around you for a change.
It is not her spiritual consistency that is being remarked on here. Who the hell cares what’s in her heart when she’s capable of lying in court and breaking the rules that, quite honestly, should not have to be laid out for her to know how she should behave.
Since you’re into biblical quotations, maybe you’ll get the message when reading this one:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
This is the quotation you were looking for.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
Beautiful.
A little learning is a dangerous thing!!
It is not the Magistrate’s illicit personal antics that should bother is – that is her personal affair – but when we have a person of such low morals “judging” other people in Court, this is really terrifying and someone must see that no cases are alloted to this magistrate who has lied under oath.
Excuse me? Those “illicit personal antics” are directly related to her performance in her public role.
She didn’t only lie under oath, she fraternises with policemen, she lies about some of them, she hosts people who are parties in some of the cases she’s hearing.
And that’s just for starters.
No Daphne please dont give up. Keep up your sterling journalism.
Excellent article by Georg Sapiano today in the Sunday Times
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100328/opinion/the-magisterial-inquiry
I read this blog quite frequently because it’s one of the ways that I keep myself updated about what normally is not on the news…
Yet, I feel that whether the magistrate went to a procession or not, is not really relevant… in the sense that, for those of you who are Catholics, you’re all joining in the so called “magistrate’s hypocrisy”. Ġw 8, 1-11 “Min fostkom hu bla dnub jitfgħalha hu l-ewwel ġebla.’’
For those of you who are not, I don’t believe that anyone should be bothered about the way in which others practice their religion… We are all faced with this personal choice, and I believe that we should mind our business.
Anyway, I hope that this comment will be published, or at least I get a reply. Thanks.
It IS our business how someone in a public role decides to ‘practise their religion’. Or isn’t lying in court covered by the ten commandments?
Of course it is. But whether that commandment has been broken is matter for that person and God. We mortals should bother about the law which regulates testimony under oath.
Precisely. And it dovetails neatly with one particular religious commandment.
Here’s the point you’re missing:
if she’s apparently unafraid of divine retribution for breaking the laws of God, why would she hesitate to break those made by man?
Religion is not divorced from other aspects of reality.
Whether she has broken the law of God is not for us to decide.
[Daphne – I’m a lapsed Catholic, Manuel, but even I know what the Catholic rules are when it comes to adultery: it’s a mortal sin. Live in adultery, and you live in a state of mortal sin. So doing penance on the day of Our Lady of Sorrows is pretty pointless unless you’re going to give up the adultery.]
If she has broken the law of man as you seem convinces she has, then she should answer for it in secular tribunals. However even if she is found guilty therein, even were she to admit to it, guilt in front of God will be determined by God.
God only knows whether or not she was sincere in her Duluri devotions. The presumption of innocence applies even more forcefully here – is no far as human judgments are concerned. We’re somewhat unqualified to act as judges in that sort of tribunal.
I’ve already said I don’t give a damn about her immortal soul. You’re the one who keeps bringing it up.
@ Daphne
Eureka! Hypocrisy exists!!! What baffles me is that you who deem yourself so liberal should exert all this energy to pinpoint other people’s hypocrisy. If divorcees, cohabitating people, tax-evaders, corrupted, masturbators, adulters, people who swear etc etc stop participating in these para-liturgical events to heed you call for coherency then the churches would be empty. Perhaps it is this that you want after all.
By the way adultery is not just a sin/offence to Catholicism. The revulsion to it is something ingrained in the human psyche to such an extent that it is punishable even in primitive animist religions.
Leah “others practice their religion”. If you want to speak about religion, then I’ll use religious terminology. We’re talking about an adulteress and fornicator (make that a double adulteress) who walks behind the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows then promptly goes back home to carry on fornicating and committing adultery until next year’s procession, when she’ll repeat the whole thing again. Or perhaps we won’t have to wait that long – perhaps she’ll be walking in procession up to the Salib tal-Gholija this Friday, before or after the visits to Seven Churches.
What did Magistrate Herrera give up for Lent – fornication and adultery?
Amazing…but so true….
All this reminds me of Noel and his rosary beads.