Listening, deceptively, seems to be easy but in actual fact is a very difficult activity. Listening as a physiological fact can be easy; but listening is much more than that. It is an act of engagement with oneself, others and the world.

The rainbow sings the praises of unity in diversity. Bishop Scicluna’s role is to harvest this diversity while harnessing unity- Fr Joe Borg

The listener accepts the other, that is, the speaker, as someone worthy of engaging with. Therefore true listening is based on respect. It is the antidote for the feeling of auto-sufficiency.

It is a manifest sign that one does not know it all nor has it all. Listening shows that without the other no one is complete. Listening is based on the certitude of the existence of doubt.

It is as essential for the proper development of the listener as it is important for the outreaching of the talker. Unless one is a good listener one cannot be a good talker.

Listening seems to be a passive activity. It is anything but passive. It is the basis of good action. Listening is the other side of talking; and both together constitute real dialogue.

Salomé Voegelin in her book Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art elaborates on the reciprocal ‘inter-subjective’ engagement of listening by drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s analogy of being honeyed:

“Honey is a slow-moving liquid... It comes apart as soon as it has been given a particular shape, and what is more, it reverses the roles, by grasping the hands of whoever would take hold of it.”

Thus when Mgr Charles Scicluna, our Auxiliary Bishop-elect, set upon himself the task of being a good listener he was embarking on a task as difficult as it is essential. He put the bar higher than high by adding that: “When I live there [in Malta] I will gain the right to speak but before I speak I need to listen.”

This task is doubly difficult. The attitude of talking more than, and before listening, is one of the occupational hazards of us priests. The root of the problem, I think, is that we believe we know it all.

Sometimes, during fits of presumed humility, we say we don’t know it all. But cross my heart and hope to die the feeling that we know it all lingers on. And we priests who work in the media are among the worst offenders.

It is very good, then, that Mgr Scicluna wants to attack this deeply ingrained attitude. His previous ministries within the Church must have helped him no end to develop the skill of an engaging listener. He must have engaged with those who believed that the institution is more important than the human person. With them he emphasised that the contrary is the correct Christian attitude.

He must have also listened extensively to vulnerable people who were abused by those commissioned to protect them. His caring attitude helped them to heal and move forward.

These skills he has learnt will surely come in handy in his new ministry. The episcopal ministry is radically different from that of a prosecutor.

Besides, Mgr Scicluna will be aided by his two not-so-secret weapons: his acute sense of humour and his jovial spirit.

His ministry of listening will surely bring him in contact with the different hues that make the ecclesiastical rainbow. I think this metaphor describes the Church in a much better way that the image of the club.

I find the latter metaphor to be defective. It sees the Church, first and foremost, in juridical terms, mainly an institution having a common objective, membership terms and rules. Uniformity and conformity are emphasised through that metaphor, which is a metaphor that stifles.

A rainbow is more evocative for it is made up of diverse colours perfectly synergised together to form the colour white. The rainbow sings the praises of unity in diversity.

Bishop Scicluna’s role is to harvest this diversity while harnessing unity. This is a difficult balancing task as when one aspect is overemphasised the rainbow stops being a rainbow.

Mgr Scicluna is surely conscious of this hard task and consequently promised to extend his listening vertically besides laterally. He said that while his task aims to be of service to Archbishop Paul Cremona his intention is to learn from the Archbishop. These are words wisely spoken indeed. Mgr Cremona is a great archbishop because he etched for himself a place in people’s hearts, not on commemorative marbles.

He considered Church structures to be of secondary importance to the people the Church exists to serve. Moreover he showed all that the place of the bishop is in people’s homes more than it is in the Curia, thus fulfilling Augustine’s maxim “With you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop.”

Let’s pray that Mgr Scicluna’s ministry of listening will bear fruit.

• In recent weeks the media communicated to us the dramatic story of two Pakistani girls: Rimsha Masih and Malala Yousafzai. The stories are different in many respects but common in others. They emphasise the horrendousness of intolerance.

Masih, a Pakistani 11-year-old mentally handicapped Christian girl was accused of blasphemy for allegedly burning pages of the Koran. She spent three weeks in police custody. She and her family went through hell during that period. She has now been released on bail and a Muslim cleric is being investigated for the frame-up of the girl.

The blasphemy laws have been used in Pakistan to persecute Christians. As a protest against these infamous laws, in 1998, Bishop John Joseph shot himself in the courtroom where a Christian had been convicted and sentenced to death on questionable charges.

Yousafzai’s story is evolving. The 14-year-old girl courageously campaigned for women’s right to education. A Taliban extremist shot her in the head. She is still fighting for her life.

The fight against all forms of intolerance is never-ending. D.W. Griffith had given it a cinematic existence in his epic film Intolerance. The fatal virus knows no boundaries, as has religion or culture or ethnicity. It is universal. So should be the fight against it.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt