Letters | Sunday, 19 July 2009

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The extremities of parish feasts

I’m writing this letter to draw immediate attention to authorities concerned about a disgraceful incident recounted below.

On Saturday 4 July 2009, I was in Rabat with some foreign friends of mine who were on holiday in Malta to visit the Catacombs and St Paul’s Grotto.
On our way we encountered the train (Melita Trains) which makes cultural tours around Rabat and Mdina passing trough the street which leads from the Roman Domus to St Paul’s Grotto.
As passengers, there was a substantial group of youngsters shouting and waving red flags. I did not know what was happening and after my friends inquired, I stopped a passer-by to see what was going on. “Those youths are part of the Pauline Festa Party of Rabat,” he said. “The Feast of St.Paul in the Rabat Parish is being celebrated this weekend, and they are using the train service to instigate provocation as they passed next to the Church and Band Club which celebrate the Feast of St Joseph!”
As he said these words he indicated the two premises.
I was flabbergasted and ashamed of how outdated things could still be done in these modern times by our ‘open-minded’ youths! When I translated to my friends what the man had said, they laughed and said that these are ridiculous things to do in our progressive times.
After much food for thought, I decided to write about this shameful incident and make the Ecclesiastical and Civil Authorities aware so that such occurrences do not take place in Malta, as they make a bad name, religiously and culturally, for our country.
I also hope that the authority responsible for the train service mentioned further above should see that the train operating in Rabat and Mdina would not be used for fanatic festa/football or political extremities. And last but not least, I appeal to the Archpriest of the Rabat Parish to make up his own duties as the spiritual father of all the Rabat population, to put in practice Christ’s teaching of fraternity and love and see that no festa in Rabat would be tainted by such grievous, shocking and un-Christian activities!

Adrian Zahra
Rabat

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