It is now Bishop Scicluna’s turn to be sent to the pillory by l-orizzont. He follows in the footsteps of Pope Benedict and Bishop Mario Grech. I dare not mention myself because who am I to be placed – even remotely – in the same league as these reverend gentlemen? But truth be said l-orizzont devoted a fair amount of pages to ‘sing my praises’.
But I digress.
Perhaps you remember, perhaps you don’t. But on the eve of Pope Benedict’s visit to Malta l-orizzont had a one word screaming headline: W€LCOME”. (If I remember correctly they used the German equivalent.) As you may notice the Euro symbol substituted the letter “E”. They had the temerity to suggest that the Pope was visiting Malta for financial gain!
And let me remind you of just one attack on Bishop Mario Grech. l-Orizzont had accused Bishop Grech of trying to expedite the proposed beatification process of Dun Mikiel Attard to prop electoral fortunes of the then Minister Giovanna Debono! Quite naturally the story was just a lie – it was one hundred per cent invented. There was no shred of truth in it.
L-orizzont does tend to be economical with the truth!
The same can be said about the attack on Bishop Scicluna. Their secondary headline stated that the Auxiliary Bishop is against “the right for a Civil Union”. This statement is supported neither by anything that Bishop Scicluna said or by anything which was reported in l-orizzont. The twitter message quoted by l-orizzont does not say that Bishop Scicluna is against civil union. He said nothing of the sort. The message clearly states his criticism of the government’s stand to equate civil union with marriage. Even l-orizzont knows the difference between both statements. Perhaps the editor was hoping that his readers wouldn’t.
The sensationalist report of l-orizzont is strong on hype and poor on substance. The report is 100cm long but only 12cm are dedicated to what Bishop Scicluna said. Twenty six centimetres are dedicated to a Facebook exchange between two gentlemen who are not even remotely to anything Bishop Scicluna said. The rest – 64 cm – is made up of the heading and the photo.
I don’t think that this report will in any way veer Bishop Scicluna from his Kantian attitude of saying thing as they are and as they should be said in contrast to those who prefer to take a more utilitarian approach.
I wish Bishop Scicluna luck for this evening’s participation in Xarabank.