Irish freemasons

According to the Church newspaper Il-Gens Illum, published yesterday, Irish freemasons already well established in Malta want to establish a Grand Lodge. Nothing sensational about that, as the same paper states they already have three lodges in Malta.

What many of us in the European Movement (Malta) were irked about was a rhetorical question made in the front-page report of the newspaper to the effect: "The question arises as to whether Malta's EU accession is leading to the acquisition of a stronger sense of 'independence' by means of the establishment of a Grand Lodge in Malta?"

Frankly, we cannot understand the meaning of this question nor can we really get what the paper's likely reaction would be to a "yes" or "no" answer. However, we do not miss the point the writer wished to make.

The Catholic Church is against free masonry. As a result many Maltese Catholics look upon free-masonry very negatively. Hence the thrust of the report was to insinuate that our membership of the EU may be encouraging the spread of free-masonry in Malta. Got it?

Now we think this is cheap. It is an attempt to present the EU membership in a bad light. We in the Movement understand that the uncontrolled sniping of this sort against the EU can undermine public confidence in the EU. We do not mind fair and balanced criticism, but not sniping.

We hope that this will stop in the name of fairness. We hope that, for example, EU membership will not be blamed for racist feelings which have been on the rise in Malta, instead of the Church's perceived ineptness at embedding Christian values deeper in the hearts of the Maltese.

The EU has often been used as a convenient scapegoat for one's failures. Governments have used it to protect themselves against unpopular but needed measures - or worse their inadequacies. Professional Eurosceptics religiously depict the EU as the source of all evil.

Hence we are not surprised that Il-Gens Illum may also be employing the same tactics itself.