Roamer's Column

What with the Archbishop of York, Dr Hope, pronouncing himself "hard-pushed" to describe Britain as a Christian country and nearly a third of the inhabitants of that realm unable to place Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, things would seem to be looking down for Christianity. The same number again could not name Adam as the first name (I almost wrote Christian) to appear in the Bible; and just as many could not identify the table at the east end of a church as the altar.

I am sure that if similar research were conducted in Malta it would not reveal the same cloud of unknowing but I sometimes wonder whether we are not travelling in the direction of that secularism which Dr Hope sees as inimical to proper belief.

There is growing evidence that our commitment to the Church is less today than it was even as recently as 20 years ago. Nor is such evidence limited to something as obvious as the fall in church attendance. The churches will be full on Christmas Eve, not crammed as they once were, but whether this presence will be meaningful in itself or more a prelude to the night's entertainment may be another matter.

On the occasion of Republic Day, the President, Dr Fenech Adami, touched upon what he called the erosion of traditional values and implied that this was in part the price of progress. I believe that it is in greater part due to the observable fact that our Christian moorings are not as secure as they used to be and, as a result, do not offer the sanctuary that safe anchorage provides.

What is taught at school and at home is not a sufficient antidote to what goes on out there; out there being the media and places of new worship, new rituals, like early teenage binge drinking, to name but one. The age at which peers pressure peers seems to be getting younger and younger. (Incidentally, one wishes that social surveys carry more information about their respondents, for example, their family background - broken home, drunken father and/or wife-beater, mother on the loose, or plain normal; then social workers may have something substantial to work on).

But perhaps a more insidious factor contributing to an erosion of values, traditional or values-in-themselves, is a growing conviction among an increasing number that almost nothing is wrong and whatever takes your fancy is all right, too. And God is whatever you wish to make Him out to be, which of course is straightforward paganism. But I understand this is in vogue, too, not in Malta but if Mary Wakefield is to be believed, in Britain, where she learned during an interview that pagans were "united by their sense of the injustices done them by Christians". Helping erosion of values along is what sometimes sounds like a deep hatred for the Church and all its works.

If it is any consolation, and of course it is not, we are far from the levels reached by Planned Parenthood which, according to Mark Steyn in this week's Spectator, sells greeting cards "for abortion proponents filled with seasonal cheer to send to each other: Choice on Earth", they proclaim. But then if you take Christ out of Christmas, Christmas out of cards and replace it with Season, Season's Greetings, the paths in other directions become numerous.

It is such a simple story, the story of Christmas, perhaps too simple? This point has been made by Lino Spiteri in articles that appeared at Christmastime in this newspaper over the past 12 years and which have now been published under one cover, A Gentle Child (see review by Paul Xuereb on page 36).

Born today, odds are that Jesus would have been put away, or more likely, invited on TV shows as a crank. Born then, He grew up, proclaimed the Good News, was put to death and rose again on the third day. He was preached by his apostles, declared by them to be the Son of God and gave birth to Christianity. But this was all a bit too male for Dan Brown who claims that the man married, Mary Magdalene and that it was she who was to be the leader of the Church. Millions of people buy the book and for many it may be their only contact with a man called Jesus. So, the bloke married, big deal; what else is new?

Turkish delight

So, some time after 2015, perhaps as late as 2020, a Muslim country will become a member of the European Union, which has flinched from the idea of rooting its genesis in Christianity as well as that of acknowledging its deference to a three-letter word. The decision to start the ball rolling for Turkey's accession was taken after the EU leaders' two-day summit held last week stalled for a whole morning. Up to Friday afternoon, it seemed that stall would change to tail-spin over the issue of the divided island of Cyprus, the Greek-Cypriot part of which joined the EU with Malta last May.

What a bunch of lost souls the prime ministers seemed to be as they slogged it out over a coffee and sandwich lunch. There was Mr Blair, cup in hand, walking, forcing his way, it seemed at one point, to a mysterious destination and smiling all the way to it as if Blunkett had never happened; there Mr Chirac, getting a few words in with the secretary-general of the United Nations, or chatting up his twin Mr Schroeder from across the border, the first in favour of Turkish entry the second also, but both knowing that their opposition in Paris and Bonn were against - as was much of public opinion in both countries; and there, Mr Schüssel warning of the consequences and there, Mr Juncker, all but saying the word that was on everybody's mind but too daring to utter.

What strange turns history takes. In cosmic terms it is not all that long ago that Constantine, the truly Great, changed the course of history by proclaiming Christianity as the official religion of the empire and, as Emperor of Rome, transferring the centre of power from Rome (Old Europe) to the city he was building, Constantinople. This New Europe was to become what John Julius Norwich has termed "the great Oriental bastion of Christendom" and, of course, the cradle of Christian civilisation as the lights in Old Europe were being snuffed out.

In 1453, a little more than 1,100 years after the first Constantine, the Byzantine Empire died the death. Appropriately, the last emperor's name was Constantine - the 11th of that name. The Ottoman Turks had arrived, a euphemism for the terrible bloodbath that followed in May of that year as, remorselessly, the troops of Sultan Mehmet stormed the city in wave upon wave, mercenary troops giving way to professional soldiers and these, finally, to the Janissaries.

At the end of the battle, the Hagia Sofia, which Richard Krautheimer says "stands by a miracle" and cost Justinian's Treasury between £130 million and £180 million - at 1986 rates - became a mosque. Minarets were built on its four corners and figural mosaics were covered with yellow paint, but it still defies the visitor's imagination and, collapse though parts of it did over the years, today's "safety coefficients".

Ironically, the Byzantine Empire was betrayed by what seems to be in retrospect a death wish on the part of the 'West'. At one level the Empire's wealth provoked the greed of the Normans and of Italian republics who saw in the Orient their El Dorado. That and the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade took their grim toll. At another level, its central government had lost the energies required to hold the empire together. To external explosions we may justifiably add an element of internal implosion.

What would Mehmet be saying now as Mr Erdogan knocks peacefully at the door of Europe?

Turley's strength lies in its strategic position. With one foot in geographic Europe (Istanbul lies directly south of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine) and the other on the borders of Syria and Iraq, it is an ally that cannot easily be fobbed off and, indeed, has much going for it. There can be no doubt however that its passage into the EU will not be an easy one. Much will depend on how European governments continue to view the new candidate. Colonel Gaddafi has not helped Turkey's cause when he unhelpfully used his simile of a 'Trojan horse'.

This conjured up for some observers the possibility of a slow Islamicisation of Europe just at the time when others are seeing in Turkey's membership the democratisation of Islam. In favour of its argument, the former point to the demography of a decreasing population in Europe and the blurring of western beliefs. The latter see opposite trends taking place in Turkey. Only one thing is clear: the process will be long and the conclusion is by no means obvious. If a New Europe was seen in 1989 when the Soviet Empire collapsed, what will we call the Europe-that-is-becoming when it becomes in 2015 or 2020?

Get cracking!

A day off in lieu when a religious or public holiday falls on a Saturday or a Sunday hardly seems to be the sword on which either the government or the unions should fall to demonstrate a point of principle, or even law. Yet this is the impression being given by the secretary-general of the General Workers Union. You tamper with Article 17 of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act at your peril is more or less the message the GWU is flashing in the direction of the government.

It is clear, however, that if the government intends to introduce its measure for more productivity - more working time at the workplace - it can hardly do so without visiting legislation that runs counter to the decision it announced in Budget 2005. Employers, who are in favour of removing what they regard as an obstacle to productivity, say they will implement the law once it is altered to take account of the new reality.

Meanwhile most everybody is urging agreement on a social pact in order to get 2005 off on to a good start. These somehow fail to register the simple fact that such a pact will not materialise if the interest of the parties involved is limited to the defence of their neck of the wood.

Any meeting of minds on this business has to have as its point of departure an acknowledgement that Malta has too many public holidays mainly because there are far too many national holidays. It is on the latter that the axe should fall. By the time the task is finished, two or three of the holidays currently celebrated should be gone forever.

Let us assume that the oft-quoted Article 17 is sacrosanct, which it patently is not (what the lawmaker binds together the lawmaker can put asunder). In the interest of lateral thinking let us go along with the unions' views on the point that touching 17 is a no-no, that 17 must remain virginally intact. How can we arrive at the same result the government wishes to achieve without deleting said article?

Visit those national holidays and remove two from the calendar. Examine March 31, Sette giugno, Otto settembre, September 21, December 13. It is clear to me that of these five there are two that may reasonable be kept, and two that may as reasonably be discarded without having to be forgotten.

The removal of March 31 and Sette giugno should present no particular problem except at a purely political level. Independence Day and Republic Day could each be kept on - they have the value of now being regarded as self-evident breakthroughs at the constitutional level, making Malta what it is today, a sovereign nation in a republican mould. March 31 added nothing to this profile, nor did Sette giugno. The monuments that have been raised to each are sufficient to their glory.

A historical arguments against Sette giugno being set apart for national celebration is that "the rebellion of the priests" in the 1770s would seem to offer an even greater demonstration of the country's urge to rid itself of rulers whose time to go had almost arrived anyway. It is a rebellion few seem to know a thing about.

The artfulness of all this lies in a simple acknowledgement of the simple fact that both the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party have an achievement that is honoured at the national level. True, Mr Mintoff may go overboard at the thought of what was christened Freedom Day being zapped out of the National Days Binge. Others may be similarly affected by downgrading Sette giugno. But the unions as sure as hell cannot be disaffected. Employers will not be downcast. Politicians may go into grouse mode; so what?

The social partners can do worse than test the idea before Christmas.