A Reflection by Drachma read during an MKSU Human Rights Activity (Prayer Service) held at the University of Malta

Often times we read beautiful words, documents, we all agree about them. Yet we do not work them out in real life, in concrete ways in our ordinary day-to-day living. The Human Rights Charter, which today we are remembering and celebrating. But let us also remember the teachings of the Catholic Church herself; such as its own teaching - the Social Doctrine, teachings about minorities. What are we waiting for? Why do we lack courage to bring about the necessary changes?

Christianity itself is such a simple doctrine but often sounds complex and heavy, people are pushed away, made to run away from it. It often sounds like it is very far away from our own humanity.

Often times because of words, people of faith are kept away and forced to turn away from this our Church. We dream of a Church that welcomes all in concrete and effective ways, opening up new spaces…for dialogue, for working out the gospel together, bringing into it our real concrete life experiences.

We lament a Church that often neglects its LGBTI children….

We lament a Church who too often comes across as judgmental rather than presenting God’s love for all of His children, no matter who or what we are….

We lament a Church who rarely offers life-giving options to the LGBTI community but often presents closed doors….

We lament a Church who lost the capacity to engage with society and enter into life-giving dialogue. Too often the focus is on heavy morality rather then addressing concrete realities of people’s lives and faith-struggles…spirituality….

We lament a Church who often presents herself as almost an enemy to the rights and dignity of minority groups rather then a mother who is also concerned about these children of hers…

We hope for fraternity, we desire Christian Unity not only amongst the different Churches but also amongst ourselves, Catholics who are so diverse ourselves…

We hope that we truly learn to love one another as brothers and sisters and stop perceiving each other as enemies….

We hope that LGBTI issues are no longer scapegoated to avoid addressing other important faith-issues, we hope that LGBTI issues are addressed fairly and squarely without fear but truly in faith and reason….

We hope for a Church committed to present the gospel message to the LGBTI community as a message of life and liberation and not as one of fear and despair. We celebrate the positive exchanges we already had such as the positive experiences with KDZ during the Pope’s visit...

We hope in Words that are alive and can bring about change and transformation and not simply shelved as beautiful document….

We want to believe in the other Kingdom, we want to dream with the rest of the Church we want to believe in the ‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’ as Good News for us as all….

We want to believe that Peace is possible even between Church Hierarchy and the LGBTI community, that love is a real possibility, and that all people can flourish within the Christian faith…