The archbishop leads by example
Published:
September 26, 2013 at 10:18am
Some good news this morning – four Ethiopian immigrants who were granted asylum after reaching Malta on small boats will be getting married on Sunday.
The good news is not so much the two marriages – though that too, it should go without saying – but the fact that the Archbishop himself will marry them at the Capuchins church in Floriana.
Well done.
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‘Well done’ is well deserved. We await with bated breath the comments that are bound to come in beneath the Times of Malta report.
Yes, it has been well noted. We are heading straight into a war, direct express.
[Daphne – You need a psychiatrist, Mr Farrugia. And no, that’s not an insult but proper advice.]
Perhaps Stephen Farrugia knows, through some secret “intelligence report”, that these Ethiopian immigrants are actually Muslims disguised as Christians, biding their time until they take over Malta.
It must be so sad living a life thinking everyone’s out to get you.
Contrary to popular (and highly misinformed) belief many migrants are Christians but that’s by the by. The fact remains that we’re a racist lot.
I commute by bus every day. More often than not, I take bus number X4 which is, normally, a route which many migrants use.
I witness racist episodes some 90% of the time. Last Tuesday I witnessed an episode which left me gobsmacked. I was on another bus going to tal-Qroqq and there was an African gentleman who was impeccably dressed (in suit and tie).
His skin colour attracted the attention of the bird-brained passengers and, as soon as the gentleman stood up to get off the bus, a volley of insults was hurled at him, such as: ara hej, liebes pulit, imma xorta iswed ikrah pesti baqa’. I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes.
Well, I was behind the gentleman whilst getting off the bus and I did reply, of course. However, I was shocked to the core. This was racism in its purest form and I found it revolting.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130924/world/pope-defends-immigrant-rights-denounces-slave-labour.487535
So back to the Spanish Inquisition (shades of Monty Python !), convert to Catholicism and you get refugee status ? Are these people real ?
william cauchi
Today, 10:44
I used to think Ethopians were Catholics but :
Year Ethiopian Orthodox Protestants Catholics. Muslims Animists Other
2007. 43.5% 18.6% 0.7% 33.9% 2.6% 0.7%
Growth -7.1%’ 8.5% -0.2%. 1.1%. -2.0% -0.3%
Only 0.7% were Catholics in 2007 and Protestantism is growing very fast.
Joe Xuereb
Today, 12:01
Freedom of Religion is absolute. But times are changing.
Malta’s tiny and its Catholics relatively small in number, with church attendance not particularly strong. I suggest that RC migrants should be encouraged to boost the local dwindling stock. & I suggest too that migrants who aren’t RC should be encouraged to convert, ideally through marriage to local men & women. It’s a long term solution.
Whoever knows anything about the history of Christianity in general and the history of Christianity in Ethiopia would never think that the majority of Ethiopians are Roman Catholic.
Christianity in Ethiopia dates back to antiquity — in fact, to the 1st century — and, as in Egypt and surrounding lands, Christianity is of the Coptic variety. Copts and all Orthodox Churches (Greek, Russian etc) share virtually the same beliefs with Catholics except that thy are not subject to the Roman Church. The theological differences are negligible and somewhat obscure (e.g. the so-called “filioque controversy”) and the Catholic Church does in no way consider them heretical.
Thank you for pointing this out.
The Archbishop is showing the meaning of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi…