In the meantime, my following letter was published today:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=219639
The impact of immigration
Edric Micallef Figallo, Nadur.
Many people have serious concerns regarding the problematic international phenomenon of illegal immigration and its impact on our nation. They are denigrated with little restraint by those with an agenda. We are not Christians, we hear from some.
I would simply like to quote Cardinal Giacomo Biffi and Pope Benedict XVI, whose theological knowledge is extensive to say the least.
Cardinal Biffi had stated: "The criteria for admitting immigrants cannot be exclusively based on economic or social assistance considerations (even though they have their own weight). It is a need that we preoccupy ourselves with saving our proper national identity. Italy is not a desert or semi-inhabited land, without history, without living and vital traditions, and without a discernible spiritual and cultural physiognomy, to populate indiscriminately, as if there wasn't a typical humanistic and civilisational heritage that should not be lost". The Pope was interviewed on the matter by Cardinal Biffi: "He underlined that there exists a migration of peoples, but it is clear that any government, even the most open, cannot accept indefinitely all immigrants. Therefore there is a need to distinguish those that can immigrate and the others.
"According to what criteria? That was the question of Cardinal Biffi. Starting off from the notion that choices are inevitable, we must accept first of all - in view of the social peace of our European societies - the groups that are more integrable, those closer to our culture. If a cultural incompatibility manifests itself, an incomprehension, it is all of society that will fracture itself. This serves nobody, not even Muslim immigrants. Defining the criteria that permit unity in a country and consent to social peace is in the interest of all".
For those promoting liberal immigration through the abused call to our traditional Christian values, Cardinal Biffi and Pope Benedict XVI are potentially racists and xenophobes. Thus, for "you're not Christian" rhetoricians the only honest course of action involves informing Cardinal Giacomo Biffi and Pope Benedict XVI of their impending excommunication by Malta's very own blightless self-appointed judges of Catholic orthodox traditionalism and Catholic communion.
May His Excellency and the Holy Father excuse a pun intended to expose hypocrisy in the manipulation of the religious sentiments of many honest and concerned Maltese people.