Divorced from reality?

It must have been a very interesting meeting. We refer to the meeting the Archbishop had with members of the constituted bodies.

Reports in the press said that this discussion was part of the Church's celebrations of the feast of St Joseph the Worker. We find this a bit strange, since that feast was held on May 1 or 13 full days before this meeting. But that is what some reports in the press said and who are we to disagree?

Besides, the Church's celebrations this year were marked by other strange happenings. We do not know why the Archbishop's visit to Paceville was organised at a time when there is practically no one there. Quite strange.

We are not describing the meeting as an interesting one because of these two incidents, but for another reason. This is a translation of the last paragraph of the report in In-Nazzjon of last Wednesday.

"Regarding this point (the role of women in the family and the work place) the Archbishop said that he disagreed with the position expressed by the representatives of the unions. He emphasised that he was sad that the unions were not conscious of what was happening in Malta."

We were not there so we cannot but base ourselves on the reports in the press. We also note that the reports taken in their entirety did not clearly bring to the fore the reason for this missive by the Archbishop. We find it interesting because it is a kind of turning of the tables.

Usually the Church is accused losing touch with reality or that it does not know what is happening around us. On this occasion we had the reverse situation. The Church is saying that it is the unions who are divorced from the reality of present-day life in Malta.

We wanted to know more about what was said during that meeting but the reports in the press, though quite long, were not as illuminating as we wanted them to be. Who does not know what is happening around us: the Church or the unions?

Perhaps there will soon be a follow-up of this debate.