VALETTA, June 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It is a commonplace among pro-life activists that media attention garnered by abortion supporters is wildly out of proportion to the actual support for abortion among the public at large. In no country is this disparity more evident than in Malta, one of the last countries in the world to have Roman Catholicism officially named in its constitution as the state religion.
Last week a story appeared on a Maltese online news source with the headline, “Malta Abortion Rights Support Warns Government of International Boycot.” The text of the story, however, was removed without comment the day after it appeared.
A Maltese blogger clarified for LifeSiteNews.com, that like the American “group,” Catholics for a Free Choice, the Malta Abortion Rights Support “movement” consists of two activists, Emy Bezzina and John Zammit. The two are also the founders of The Malta Divorce Movement, the Association for Men’s Rights, the Family Rights Association. The article that appeared on the Maltese English language news site, “di-ve.com” was removed upon realisation that ‘Malta Abortion Rights Support’ was an impromptu creation of Bezzina and Zammit who sent a press statement to the Maltese media.
Bezzina and Zammit also head and make up the membership of the Alpha Liberal Party, which has as its slogan, “For Freedom, Democracy and a Secular Malta.” Malta is between 95 and 100% Catholic. It is one of the oldest Catholic nations in the world tracing its religious roots to the landing of St. Paul the Apostle there in approximately 60 AD while he was en route to Rome to stand trial before the Emperor Nero.
Unlike nearly everywhere else, however, to the Maltese, support for the abortion/population control agenda is a standing public joke that only the media seems not to get. Another Maltese political blogger, Fausto Majistral, who seems to enjoy covering the pair, called them “the comic relief” and commented, “What do you get when you put Emmy Bezzina and John Zammit together? Five associations, each with a membership of two.”
According to its website, the Alpha Liberal Party is committed to implimenting what it calls “basic civil liberties” such as legalized “divorce, cohabitation, illegittimate (sic) children, gay rights, decriminalising abortion.” The two-person party also supports ratifying the European Constitution as part of this agenda. The measure of popular support for the party’s agenda could be seen in the latest election where Dr. Bezzina garnered 0.0049% of the valid votes cast.
Malta is a country that is invariably described as ‘conservative’ whenever the international mainstream news media remembers its existence. Most recently in an interview during his visit to Malta, Dutch Cardinal, Adrianus Johannes Simonis was quick to correct his Maltese interviewer saying that in comparison to the Netherlands – which he described as ‘pagan’- Malta was not “conservative’ in its Catholicism but “orthodox.”
Cardinal Simonis said, “Let it be orthodox. We have to be orthodox. Liberalism is the end of everything and also the end of many values. If you are orthodox, believing in a Christian way, then you can maintain your real values.”
Read Times of Malta interview with Cardinal Simonis: https://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=188934
Read Fausto Majistral’s blog, “Malta 9 Thermidor” commenting on politcs and media: https://malta9thermidor.blogspot.com/2005/03/comic-relief.html
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