‘Orfni Bil-Pulit’: Rabat Archpriest Criticises Longer School Hours Proposal And Calls For Four-Day Work Week

Fr Joseph Curmi, the Archpriest of St George’s Basilica in Rabat (Gozo) has issued a damning indictment of the modern lifestyle in an impassioned criticism of a proposal by two professors and PL MP Edward Zammit Lewis to increase school opening hours.
“It’s very concerning that we have started to believe that the only way we can live and develop is if everyone works,” Fr Curmi said.
“It’s as though life only makes sense if you discard your life and your loved ones so that you can spend most of your energy working for a better salary.”
“That way you can save up money to pay for the treatment of the illnesses and struggles caused by all the work you have done. This is a great lie that the capitalist models have made us believe. We have slowly even started viewing families, children and elderly people as a burden that will make us work fewer hours.”
“I think it would be better if we had to study the effects of this kind of lifestyle, which has created orphans in all but name (orfni bil-pulit). Children have been delegated and parked elsewhere because they interfere with work.”
“It would be beneficial to examine how much this lifestyle is destroying people, families and children and ultimately costing the state which must handle the illnesses and conflicts caused by this model.”
View this post on Instagram
Fr Curmi urged Maltese society to discuss models such as the four-day work week to encourage families to spend more time together.
“Why have we believed the lie that parents who raise their children are second-class and forced them to feel like useless failures if they don’t go out and work?”
“Why don’t we try to find models that help families become more serene and have more time to spend with each other?”
“Living like slaves and losing our loved ones to simply make ends meet is not progress. It is our country’s model that must change and not school opening hours.”
Do you agree with Fr Curmi’s assessment?