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3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 JUNE 2020 Letters & Clarifications Prayer in humility With reference to last Sunday's let- ter 'Anti-Catholic', I believe that the salient point of my unpublished letters was the invitation to prayer in humility. An outstanding example is fur- nished by the British writer G.K. Chesterton. When the London Times invited readers to write about the topic "What's wrong with the world", the contribution he submitted was: 'Dear Sirs, 'I am. 'Yours truly, G.K. Chesterton' Amazing! The call for mercy abounding in every Mass celebrated is also very impressive: starting from the Confiteor and the Kyrie Eleison in the liturgy of the word and ending with various invocations for mercy, "have mercy on us we beseech you" and "forgive us our trespasses…", and "O Lord, do not look on our sins, but rather look at the faith of your Church" and the moving "Agnus Dei" in the liturgy of the Eucharist. This incessant humility from sun- rise to sunset matches perfectly the height and depth of the love of the Church towards God. As I see it, the Church is so humble that it may as well add the adjective 'humble' to the other centuries-old portfolio attributes of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. But nothing beats this virtue as exercised by Jesus when He "emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave... humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even to death on the cross" (Phil. 2:7-8). In place of a proud, ego-centered self-esteem, while we are still sin- ners, Christ died for us. Such is the outrageous depth of God's love. "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt.11:29). John Azzopardi Zabbar University of Malta in top 8.9% worldwide In yet another sign of success for Malta's foremost national tertiary education institution, the Universi- ty of Malta has been ranked in the top 8.9% out of 20,000 universities worldwide. This is according to the Centre for World University Rank- ings' (CWUR) latest list, issued on- line on Monday 8 June. With an overall score of 66.7, the University of Malta scored highly especially in the Research Perfor- mance Rank – for which it ranked among the top 8.4% of universities worldwide. UM Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, said "this is another positive sign that the University is reaffirming its role as a changemaker in society, not just as a teaching institution, but, more prominently, as a research hub that promotes research-based inquiry." While also attributing the success to the brilliant minds of the aca- demia and the staff employed by the University, Prof. Vella also said that the way the funding being received by various entities is being carefully utilised is also leading to increased investments in research facilities and, ultimately, the Maltese econ- omy, which is a "much-needed cog in the regeneration of the Maltese economy post-COVID-19". Just last month, the Ministry for Education & Employment announced it made €600,000 from its recurrent budget available to the UM's Research Fund Committee, and the 7th cycle of the TAKEOFF Seed Fund Awards (TOSFA) was launched in the pres- ence of the Minister of the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses, allocating a further €100,000 to local researchers and entrepreneurs. Stephanie Buttigieg University of Malta