New chandeliers spark off dispute in Zurrieq

The Carmelitan Society and the Queen Victoria Band of Zurrieq have suspended their relations with the Curia.

They will also be boycotting all church festivities in protest at what they are describing as the Curia's negative attitude towards the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Society and band public relations officer Alan Mamo said when contacted yesterday that Zurrieq celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as a secondary feast with the society and the band taking care of external festivities and the confraternity organising the church festivities.

The feast will be celebrated tomorrow.

Although there were no restrictions on the external festivities, if one wanted to add as much as a light bulb in the church, one had to get the Curia's approval.

The confraternity was recently presented with a new set of 12 chandeliers and asked the Curia for permission to replace the old chandeliers. The confraternity was given to understand that there would not be a problem and when neither permission nor a refusal was communicated, it proceeded to instal the new chandeliers. As soon as they were in place, however, the Curia informed them in a letter that unless the chandeliers were removed it would take disciplinary action, Mr Mamo said.

Following talks involving the confraternity, the society and the band, it was agreed that the confraternity should follow the Curia's directives but the society and the band would boycott the church activities. They have even stopped the broadcast of the Mass on Lehen il-Karmelitani radio. Mass used to be broadcast between 6.30 and 8 p.m. daily. Instead there is now a break in transmission.

Mr Mamo said that the organisations had also been asking the Curia to allow them to decorate the church with damask at least a day before the statue of Our Lady is moved from the oratory next to the church. But the Curia refused to allow the decoration until the statue was in the church.

Questions sent by The Times to the Curia yesterday were still unanswered at the time of writing.