As an old, hardcore orthodox Catholic, I have been loyally subscribing to Malta’s Catholic newspaper Il-Leħen for many, many years. It was originally known as the formidable Il-Leħen is-Sewwa and was first published in 1928, making it the oldest newspaper in Malta.

I jokingly quip that its name was changed as the perpetrators who amputated the title must have been embarrassed of its glorious past in fighting Marxism and its offshoot Socialism in the 1960s. Sadly, this country too often seems indifferent to honouring its tradition and history.

Despite the cosmetic change, and unsurprisingly, Il-Leħen is the only printed newspaper in Malta that unfairly does not receive subsidies from our turbo-capitalistic, socialist government.

In the issue of Sunday, October 26, a short and hard-hitting ‘Letter to the editor’ caught my attention. It was written by the indomitable Emily Barbaro Sant, who constantly champions what is right and good.

In her letter, she drew readers’ attention to a recent court judgment where a Japanese national resident in Malta was severely punished with a two-year prison sentence and a €15,000 fine for animal cruelty. She rightly comments on how this sentence stands in stark contrast to punishments meted out to women caught carrying out the heinous crime of abortion.

In Malta, it seems that ‘Animal lives matter’ but ‘Human life in the womb does not matter’. Meanwhile, there was no outrage at the criminalisation of those who indulge in animal cruelty.

Compare this absence of interest and concern with that of the vigorous reaction from the predictable hysterical quarters when women face the courts over accusations of procuring abortions.

In these cases, pro-abortion activists, abetted by various sectors of the media, then lobby

vociferously for the decriminalisation of abortion. Added to that, we have had to put up with waffling statements from our prime minister who expressed deep concern at the current situation in Malta where abortion is criminalised.

This should not be surprising from a person who leads an administration that tried to introduce abortion by stealth some two years ago. Unfortunately, our dear prime minister was allowed a face-saving legal adjustment to his proposed law.