“Corruption eats away at the country’s moral backbone” – Newsbook editorial

Newsbook, the media house owned by the Roman Catholic Church in Malta, carried a leading article last Thursday in which – following the Archbishop’s lead – it urges people to make a considered choice against corrupt politicians who lie to them.

Some people might criticise this and see it as ‘interference’ – but this is actually the role of religious leaders, to remind us of what is right and what is wrong, of the choices we obliged to make if we are decent. For what is the point of religious leaders otherwise?

To my mind, the real tragedy is that we have reached the point where we need religious leaders to remind us that it is wrong to vote to put corrupt politicians in power, whatever we might tell ourselves to justify our choice of good over evil and wrong over right.