Church neither in favour nor against Stitching

The Church said yesterday it had not taken an official stand on the ban of the controversial play Stitching despite having distanced itself from the views of a priest who declared it should not be banned but rated for adult viewing.

Clarifying a statement issued on Monday, a Church spokesman said when contacted the Ecclesiastical authorities had as yet not analysed the play or made any judgements.

During a court hearing in a case challenging the ban ruling, Fr Joe Abela, chairman of the Church's film classification board, said people should be free to view the play. He said the play had helped him understand the suffering of grieving parents who lost a child and instead of being banned it should simply be given an 18R rating because mature people should be able to watch it.

The controversial play had been called "an insult to human dignity from beginning to end" by the government's Board of Film and Stage Classification. The play was banned weeks before it was meant to be staged in February by production company Unifaun.

On Monday, the Church distanced itself from Fr Abela's comments saying these did not reflect its values. The Church also stressed Fr Abela was not representing the board when he made the statement on the play.

Asked to specify, the spokesman said the Church had not gone into the merits of the case and in fact it had not issued an official ban. Had it done so, it would have consulted with Fr Abela.

"If the Church thought of issuing an official ban, it would have certainly made its consultations and one of the people to consult would have been Fr Abela, as chairman of the board.

But, since it did not issue any ban on this play, it did not undertake any consultations," the spokesman said.

The producers of the play said they wanted Fr Abela to testify not because of his role but because he had watched the play and believed it should not be banned.

When contacted Fr Abela preferred not to comment.