Can I confess ?

People who have left the church are not bad at all. Notwithstanding that they have not entered the church for quite a long time they still have religious feelings. They wish to come back to God. Even the official church says that everybody is welcome.

But in practical terms, not everybody is welcome! Why? Because if they are not married in the church than they cannot receive the sacraments, as if sleeping with someone is the biggest sin of them all. Well, the young people are facing enormous debts to build their first house. They are looking for something simple. The go to the bank and the realise that they have to make monthly payments for nearly all their life! Those selling houses are becoming really rich at the expense of the young. Yet when they go to church they can receive holy communion............

There is the one who murdered the father of the family. He left the wife and the children hopeless. He changed their lives forever. One can imagine the suffering in a 9 year old girl. How is one going to explain to her that her father is not coming home. Never. How is she going to face the death of her father ? Yet even a murderer, if he goes to confession, can receive holy communion!!!!!!
There are many more examples which the people in street feel that they are being cheated.

It is these questions which we need to address. But we cannot assume that they are going to accept any answer. That is the fact that unmarried priests seem to forget: one cannot feed people with cut and paste answers!

Are we sure that Christ would have asked if they slept together? What is the worst sin for Christ ? According to the gospel even meeting with the prostitute he never condemned except the very priests of the day because they had the feel good factor for themselves while they made it very difficult for others to enter the kingdom of heaven!! He called the priests (of his times) many harsh words.......He never used such terminology for the common man in the street!

That's why as married priests we accept all sorts of people. We feel that we are not judges but rather instruments of God to make it easier for people to meet Him. How can I refuse sacraments to a couple who have found love and are living peacefully while others who are in the business sector receive the sacraments freely?

So it's not surprising that speaking with people, at the end of the discussion they would ask me for confession. I will duly celebrate the sacrament (feast) of love by accepting them back in the church. Surprisingly the number of people who are not married or who have left the first marriage and found new love in Malta is rising at a steady rate. I know that such a large number of people cannot go wrong. They have the first right for a true loving life. You are all welcome!