As announced at the last Diocesan Assembly in November 2021, throughout this year we will be focusing on the theme A Church that welcomes. The intent is to appropriate more deeply our Church’s charism of “hospitality,” not only by tearing down the walls that separate us, but by opening spaces for healing in body and soul to be reconciled as one People. As we embrace an attitude of reconciliation and mercy, the Church in Malta becomes “like ‘bread that is broken’ to rediscover her original calling…that of sharing the Good News through serving all, by serving everyone without discrimination” (One Church, One Journey).
Throughout the next nine months, we will be focusing on five themes:
- Migrants: that we may learn to put on the shoes of migrants among us, especially those in our very neighbourhoods, to meet their multiple complex needs and welcome them in friendship.
- Political Reconciliation: that we may ponder and seek healing for the wounds in our nation’s history.
- Diakonia: that we may reflect on the extent we are responding to the signs of the times by tending to the needs of all the poor and the vulnerable in our communities in a spirit of evangelisation.
- Safeguarding: that, in light of the universal Church’s commitment in this field, we may seek healing for all those who feel hurt by the Church.
- The LGBTIQ community: that, following the preliminary reflection at the Diocesan Assembly, we may continue to reach out and build bridges of encounter with the members of this community who may feel excluded by the Church.