Archbishop Charles Scicluna has sounded a strong warning to Parliament over the government’s “almost diabolical” plans to decriminalise the public vilification of religion and pornography.

“Us Christians are pious and don’t like violence, but neither do we enjoy being provoked,” Scicluna wrote in Sunday’s edition of Church newspaper Lehen is-Sewwa. “We cherish the Eucharist and the Madonna and we expect everyone, even those who don’t agree with our beliefs, to at least respect them.

“We shouldn’t be afraid and we should sound a clear message. Parliament can do what it wants, and we too will do what we want when the time comes.”

Justice minister Owen Bonnici in July presented a package of laws that will fine-tune the Criminal Code, including amendments to remove laws that punish the vilification of the Roman Catholic religion “and other cults tolerated by law”, laws that have been in place since 1933.

The Bill also proposes the decriminalisation of pornography, so as to “provide for the better implementation of the right to freedom of expression”.

The Church has already issued a position paper against both decriminalisation proposals, and in his Lehen is-Sewwa article, Scicluna called on everybody who loves saints to “find the courage to defend them from vilification”.

“We are not imposing our faith on others,” the Archbishop wrote. “All we are asking is for people to respect us by respecting what we cherish. People can express themselves as they wish, so long as they don’t start insulting us. If people want to express themselves by insulting us, then we cannot be expected to keep our hands tied and ignore it.”

The Archbishop also had harsh words for the proposed decriminalisation of pornography, which he warned is akin to insulting human dignity.

He cited Pope Francis who had said in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks that it is wrong to provoke others by insulting their religion, illustrating his argument by saying that he would “punch anyone who cursed his mother”.

In a prayer to the Madonna, he said that: “if the law won’t defend you, then we [Christians] will – not through violence, but by becoming even more devoted to you.”