Call for careful use of olive trees during Holy Week

Nature Trust Malta and the Diocesan Commission for the Environment called on churches and parishes to refrain from using entire olive trees in Good Friday events and processions.

The organisations said olive trees were ecologically and economically important indigenous trees, which reached maturity after a couple of years. Olive trees provided an important resource, oil, not to mention the role the trees played in the ecosystem. Like other trees, olive trees contributed to improved air quality. Malta already suffered from a lack of such trees and cutting them down should be openly discouraged, especially if this were to be done by the Church.

The organisations felt holy celebrations should not be marred with felling olive trees just for the sake of adorning processional statutes.

Waste and insensitivity towards natural resources was not compatible with the spirit of love and respect celebrated during Holy Week and set a bad example.

They encouraged those involved to seek more sustainable solutions, such as using single branches or other alternatives, including synthetic olive trees, reusable year after year, or potted olive trees that could be planted by a given parish after the Holy Week celebrations were over.

The organisations also suggested that the practice of handing out olive leaves to the faithful during Palm Sunday should be carried out with due caution to avoid using massive amounts of them.