So here you are speaking about the Catholic priests and nuns then?

[Daphne – No, we’re not. You don’t become a priest or a nun just by virtue of being a Roman Catholic.]

The Protestants did not do anything wrong, yet they were hunted down for having different beliefs – essentially being different. You accuse and bash this movement which you call “Moonies” with nothing but hearsay and what your parents told you about it?

[Daphne – MY PARENTS? I’m 47 years old. I think I’m more than capable of working it out for myself. Yes, the Moonies are extremely frightening and you really must be a very vulnerable sort to get caught up and trapped in that kind of thing. It’s a sort of addiction.]

This is the 21st century and there is no such thing today like the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The United Nations has proclaimed the universal declaration of human rights long since, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion”.

It seems to me that these young people are very courageous and have more insight into their lives than most “educated” people. Give them a break and a chance to express themselves without prejudice and hearsay.

[Daphne – Let’s just say that if I were their parent I would be hysterical with worry. That’s no life. Any ‘religion’ which takes over your entire life and demands that you live enslaved in servitude is actually a sect. The people who join had something seriously wrong in their lives to begin with. So all right, you can argue that it’s better they join the Moonies than get hooked on heroin, but still.]

They use the same method now that they used with me in the 1970s, with the difference that the one who stopped me was a man in his 40s.

When someone told me whothey are, I went to Bishop Caruana Street in Msida, where their HQ used to be, to cancel my name from their list and the story ended with a brawl.

Dik kien jonqosni dak iz-zmien mhux bizejjed kellna l-hakma Mintoffjana.

We need someone who shows and tells us what is right from wrong.

I admire people like the young man who have hope and faith that this world can become a better place.

I would rather live in hope than hopelessness, and For those who believe now that Jesus is his/her saviour, there is a great chance you would not have thought that had you lived in his time.

Rev Moon definitely has the characteristics of my type of saviour – with all he has done for others and never for himself.

Damn right – wasn’t it run by Eileen Montesin and Vince Farrugia, at that time?

[Daphne – No. It was run by Joe Grima and by Toni Pellegrini, Ronnie’s uncle.]

It is very difficult to leave.

I had a friend who joined, was brinwashed and married a man whom she had never met before, in a mass marriage. Then her marriage was annulled (because the man had an impediment to marraige) by the Reverend Moon.

Eventually she married another from the movement. This new family had to work relentlessly for the sect. They begged in the streets and they did not have a penny to call their own. They were beggars. Finally they saw the light and left but they were continuously followed.

Bombastic, I would say.

I mean, the ‘Moonies’ are ordinary people who made a choice in their life like the rest of us.

Many of you seem to be hating on them even without any understanding. The media doesn’t always tell the truth you know.