The message the letter by Fr Renè Camilleri (July 23) titled Country (And Church) That Never Grow Up conveys is of topical interest to us in Malta, especially in the light of the recent divorce referendum result.
Fr Camilleri, who, to my knowledge, is a close adviser to the Archbishop, writes as follows when reflecting on an earlier report in The Times regarding the arrival in Malta from Rome of the reliquary credited to contain part of St Sebastian’s head: “It’s a Church that continues to ignore the times and insists on perpetuating an infantile faith and religion”.
Another article having a similar message and written by Fr Alfred Micallef SJ appeared the following day in The Sunday Times titled Church At Crossroads. Fr Micallef laments that many in the Church have not learned the proper lesson from the referendum story. He writes: “We seem to be stuck in the model of the Church as a hierarchical institution”. Further on, he continues: “Add to this the predilection of some for ceremony, lace and expensive liturgical vestments and you get the impression that values are not right”.
Vatican II, which was convened by Pope John XXIII “to open the windows of the Church to let in some fresh air”, seems to have bypassed many here in Malta even after 47 years since its closure by Pope Paul VI. As Fr Micallef wrote: “Vatican II proposed the model of the Church as a community in pilgrimage. ‘Being in pilgrimage’ means that we are not there yet… It means, among other things, that we cannot say the last word on anything”.
Pope John Paul II said: “Let us avoid moralising or suggesting that we have a monopoly of the truth”. Maybe this was the main reason why the divorce referendum produced the result that it did. The No campaigners were too cocksure of their stand, giving no space to the doubters or to those who rightly sought reasoned arguments rather than dogmatic statements. Bible-wielding stunts on TV were counter productive, especially with today’s questioning generations.
Has the Church learned any lessons from these experiences? The long silence that has ensued from those quarters after the referendum results were announced is probably symptomatic of the state of affairs within the Maltese Church hierarchy, a state of shock and disbelief. Infantile attempts have been made by some at misinterpreting and even turning round a proper understanding of those results. This is futile pinpricking and only goes to demonstrate the extremity to which uncompromising minds go to sustain a lost argument.
The Church has to wake up, face up to the new realities and adapt and this needs to be done with some urgency. Otherwise, it risks being marginalised, especially by the younger generations.
The stark truth emanating out of the referendum exercise is that the dominance the Church once exercised over minds and lives of the people in Malta now no longer exists. How this has come about is a moot point. It is probably a long story but surely the smug, cosy attitude of the Church hierarchy to the status quo over the years has contributed not a little to this unhappy result. Problems have been left to accumulate with a tendency of dusting them under the carpet. In the article quoted above, Fr Micallef aptly put the situation as follows: “Great importance has been given to devotions and to external manifestations of the faith”,
In this scenario, people often forget the nobility of many Church adherents as they struggle in today’s uncompromising world. These new heroes should be our guiding light in life as the saints of old days used to be to generations past. This is the community in pilgrimage with others.
Clement Shahbaz Bhatti, the only non-Muslim serving in the Pakistani government, was gunned down in March of this year by Islamic fundamentalists. His only crime in their blinded eyes was that he wanted to repeal the blasphemy laws introduced in 1986 and which had been used to suppress religious minorities, especially Christians. He was fully aware of the risks he carried as he maintained his solid stand. On his appointment to Cabinet in 2008, he declared: “Jesus is the nucleus of my life and I want to be His follower through my actions by showing the love of God for the poor, the oppressed, the victimised and the suffering people of Pakistan”.
Does not this noble declaration shame the many Catholics in Malta who only pay lip service to the truths of their faith? Caught up as many are in gaudy external manifestations, exaggerations in our Churches and village feasts one does not expect that such shining examples would have any effect on adherents blinded as they are by the outer gloss.
One, therefore, asks: When will the Church take heed and address firmly and energetically these pressing problems? Does the Church need another shock for it to wake up from its long slumber, perhaps one of weightier gravity than the one just experienced?