Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/567101
JURGEN BALZAN GOZO bishop Mario Grech's "reprehensible behaviour" could have cost him the post of Archbishop which Paul Cremona vacated last year due to medical reasons. A letter that MaltaToday has seen shows how mem- bers of the clergy raised their concerns on Grech with high- ranking members of the Holy See, including Cardinal Re- inhard Marx, who heads the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community. Sources said that Grech was favourite to fill in Cremona's boots but that the Vatican opted for Charles Scicluna at the eleventh hour, when it is thought that the protests voiced by members of the clergy swayed the decision Scicluna's way. This apparently soured Grech's relationship with some elements of the Gozitan Church who warned the Vati- can of his negative and "hos- tile" attitude. Various clergymen spoke to MaltaToday since its report last week on how Grech had failed to carry out the Vati- can's order to defrock Domin- ic Camilleri – up to last week Camilleri still said mass in a private chapel and present- ed himself as a priest. Newspaper post YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT FREE WITH MALTATODAY maltatoday SUNDAY • 6 SEPTEMBER 2015 • ISSUE 826 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY 'Men, women and children have been dying on Europe's doorstep, and drowning in our seas, for years. It didn't start now' 15 14 Prime Minister 'resolute on embryo freezing' New IVF law will increase number of eggs that can be fertilised to five, and limits implantable embryos to two • Gay women couples will have access to IVF on the NHS CARDINAL TOLD OF BISHOP'S BULLYING NATURE Letter in 2014 warned Cardinal Reinhard Marx that Gozo bishop was 'bully' with a 'manifest attachment to material wealth' PAGE 4 MATTHEW VELLA PRIME Minister Joseph Muscat has de- clared that he will forge ahead with plans to re-introduce embryo freezing, which was banned in 2013 under the Embryo Protec- tion Act made law by the Nationalist gov- ernment. "I am resolute to introduce embryo freez- ing," Muscat told MaltaToday. The health ministry is currently car- rying out a review of the Embryo Pro- tection Act, which was the first piece of legisla- tion to address Malta's unregulated protocols for in vitro fertilization. The law was remarkable for having outlawed embryo freezing and instead introduced the freezing of eggs – a process called oocyte vitrification – as well as banned any form of sperm or egg dona- tion, and surrogacy. As Opposition leader, Muscat had voted in favour of the Embryo Protection Act. "This was a compromise that allowed, at the very least, the introduction of a law." At the time, IVF was only offered by pri- vate hospitals. The national hospital, Mater Dei, had been equipped with IVF equipment but the service was never placed on the national health registry. The Embryo Protection Act limits the fertilization of the female eggs to just two ova, while the rest of the ova produced during the stim- ulation process are frozen for their later fertilization. Only under permission by the Em- bryo Protection Authority can a couple increase their chances of pregnancy by in- creasing the number of fer- tilized eggs to three. But Muscat said that "any IVF law, for it to be success- ful, must have the function of freezing". 'To be successful any IVF law must have freezing' PAGE 7 September 2015 - Issue 69 www.vida.com.mt TAKING GROUP PHOTOS BACK TO SCHOOL Healthy lunchbox ideas BLACK OUT Dark and mysterious fashion items for autumn INTERVIEWED Nansen Award winner and refugee rights' advocate Katrine Camilleri €1.40 Gozo bishop Mario Grech