Editorial

Nobody in their right mind would expect all the people of any modern day country, including this one, to receive someone even of the Pope's stature with unbridled joy and mindless enthusiasm.

Those days are consigned to the past, most probably for good. This in itself may not be such a bad thing. As people have become more educated as well as more exposed to the outside world through wider travelling experience and the internet, their tendency to question whatever is put before them has expanded. Today we are more cynical, assertive and demanding with those perceived to be in authority.

However, two questions arise in relation to the Pope's visit. What with the defaced billboards and long-running discussions on the phallic monument in Luqa, have some Maltese gone too far? And are the views that have dominated newspapers and webpages representative of the nation as a whole? The answers are probably yes and no.

There is little doubt that the run-up to the Pope's visit has been affected by news about sex abuse scandals. There is little doubt too that the Church could have handled the issue in a much better fashion than it did.

Fr Raniero Cantalamessa made an error of judgment when he drew comparisons between the suffering endured by the Jews in the past and the current attacks on the Church. He apologised, but the damage was done. Cardinal Angelo Sodano erred too when he dismissed the news that was breaking - in relation to allegations against the Pope's failure to act in particular - as "petty gossip". Attempting to trivialise the issue was helpful to nobody.

However, there is another side of the coin. There are strong signs that there has been a concerted effort - even from within, if the leaked documents are anything to go by - to vilify the Pope. This has been most unsavoury. But, perhaps more significantly, in this particular cloud of volcanic dust, the fact has been lost that the Church is getting some things right too.

In an interview with this newspaper last week, Mgr Charles Scicluna, who is the Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, talked candidly about the problems the Church is facing in a manner that displayed understanding, empathy and a genuine desire to deal with the shortcomings. He said without qualification that members of the clergy must no longer fail to take action over child abuse because of a "misplaced sense of protecting the institution".

And in recent days Archbishop Paul Cremona met seven men who were allegedly abused while they were boys at St Joseph Home in Sta Venera, after their cases before the Church's response team and the courts stuttered and stalled. Mgr Scicluna has also readily accepted to meet them too. These are very positive steps which deserve, but do not get, due credit.

However, today is likely to offer evidence of what the overwhelming majority of Maltese - many of whom do not make their voice heard in the press or on the internet - truly are: a welcoming nation. And there will be evidence too, as there was yesterday, of what the Pope is truly about too: a man bound to his faith, who leads by example, even in the most difficult circumstances.

The joy does not need to be unbridled, nor the enthusiasm mindless, to gain lasting benefit from that.