Bishops mum on carnival arrests

Police acted swiftly on the bishops' advice to crack down on people wearing religious vestments during Carnival. But the action by the authorities, which has already led to one man receiving a suspended jail sentence, failed to elicit a response from the Church hierarchy yesterday.

Both Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech failed to reply to questions from The Sunday Times on whether they supported the action that had been taken, and the punishment meted out.

Melvin Barbara, 26, was handed a one-month jail-term suspended for 18 months, for offending the State religion by dressing up as Christ during the Nadur carnival last month. But his lawyer argued that Mr Barbara had been made a victim of the media.

The sentence sparked outrage among members of the public who described the court's decision as "fundamentalist".

But others said the sentence was not harsh enough, and called for more action to be taken to ensure such costumes do not reappear next year.

Like previous years, scores of revellers dressed up as priests and nuns during the rowdy Nadur carnival.

The bishops condemned what had taken place and said those involved needed to recognise and respect religious and civil rights.

The bishops said that if no action was taken, the authorities would be endorsing and approving such illegal behaviour.

The authorities heeded their call. Nine more people are expected to face charges under a regulation in the Criminal Code which bars people from dressing up as priests or donning Church vestments or naval/military uniforms without a permit.

The Nadur parish council yesterday said that the police could have done "much more to control the immoral and scandalous behaviour".

"Swearwords, making fun of religious iconography, the profanation of sacred places and the obscenities that took place in public, all offended human dignity as well as our beliefs," the council said.

The Sunday Times contacted lawyer Joe Micallef Stafrace, who in 1959, as editor of Is-Sebh, was imprisoned for four days after the court declared that he had vilified the governor by publishing a caricature.

He said that although many of the costumes were worn in "bad taste", a public outcry might have been enough to show that this behaviour would not be tolerated next year.

"If you know you are going to offend or bother many people, why do it? There's nothing clever or funny about it," he said, referring to a group of people who dressed up as Jesus and his apostles.

So should the carnival be strictly policed?

"I am not saying they should have ended up in court. But freedom of expression is subject to limitations. So I believe there should be regulation."

When asked whether he felt the same way about people who dressed up as illegal immigrants, he said:

"Yes, especially in our context where there are currently so many bizarre views about immigration being thrown about. I think the subject of immigration should also have been left out in the carnival."

In his timesofmalta.com blog, columnist and lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona, who attended the carnival in Nadur, wrote that although such costumes may "still" be against the law, nothing much is going to be gained by prosecuting people.

He also responded to commentators who said the bishops had done nothing more than Muslims would have done if their religion had been vilified.

"Just because loony Islamic fundamentalists think they can scream and shout if someone dares to joke about their religion, this doesn't mean that when the same thing is done in the name of Christianity, that's all right then."

Meanwhile, comments on the timesofmalta.com forum showed that public opinion was split on this issue, with some saying they were outraged by the costumes, and others saying that the Church had overreacted.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com