My Journey, the title of Eddie Fenech Adami’s autobiography (thanks to Steve Mallia who did the actual writing based on interviews with him), is a dynamic and telling one. However, come what may could have been another potential title that would have been equally fit for the purpose. It would show that the direction of the journey was guided by principles.
My alternative title would have shown a fundamental dimension of Fenech Adami’s personality. He was anything but a consequentialist. He did not take decisions based on convenience but on what was rightly or wrongly his conviction. Whenever conviction matched convenience, it was much the better. He did not base his political life on cynical short-termism, which is so common in today’s political scenario, but it was based on principles.
Fenech Adami is definitively among those ex-Jesuit students who absorbed and assimilated the Jesuitical mindset. He reminds me of Fr Bernard, the Jesuit spiritual director at the Seminary. During the post-Vatican II creative, but more often than not turbulent period, Fr Bernard was the beacon of light that provided seminarians with a good sense of direction and purpose. He was neither a consequentialist nor a panderer for popularity.
Leafing through the book, one cannot but notice that Fenech Adami, warts and all, is valued by the Maltese because he is a man of values. Christian values, beliefs and practice form the backbone of the man and his political inspiration.
After his house was ransacked by the Mintoffian rubble, I sent him a copy of Martin Luther King’s book Strength to Love.
King’s political struggle was fortified by his Christian beliefs and values. These gave him the strength to forgive, forget and love his enemies. Strength to Love is a collection of sermons delivered by King, who was a Baptist pastor. He paid the ultimate price for his cause.
The situation is Malta was not as dramatic as the one lived by King, but the violence and vindictiveness of the 1980s made hate easy and reconciliation difficult. The contents of the book were very relevant to our situation. Fenech Adami had made a reference to the book by King, during an activity held at L-Istamperija by quoting King saying that the ‘tooth for a tooth’ strategy only benefits dentists.
In June 1994, I was one of the journalists who accompanied Fenech Adami during his visit to China. At his request, I celebrated daily Mass for the Maltese delegation. The celebration of Mass in the world’s largest and almost only remaining Communist country was full of symbolism. In the land celebrated for the famous Great Wall built to keep the non-Chinese hordes out, it is exhilarating to celebrate Him who is the Great Bridge that will lead all people to the Father.
The Chinese personal guards of the then Prime Minister who always accompanied him must have witnessed these celebrations as mind-boggling. “Why on earth are these men and women sitting around a table drinking from one cup and sharing a little wafer when there is so much food and so many different drinks around them?” they must have asked themselves.
There is just one chapter on Fenech Adami’s relationship with the institutional Church. Those who believe him to be a clerical politician must have been surprised that its title is ‘Tussle with the Church’. They probably believed that he was a pushover during negotiations with the Church. He was anything but.
Regarding the negotiations about Church schools and property, Fenech Adami writes: “My primary duty was to ensure we obtained an agreement that made sense for the country.” The chapter documents the “agonisingly slow” negotiations conducted during “three exasperating years” and which “broke down on several occasions”.
A Church source had told me that during a particularly heated session, Fenech Adami became so angry that he stood up and unceremoniously told the Nuncio and the other ecclesiastical negotiators to get out of his office.
Regarding the Church/State agreement on marriage, Fenech Adami had publicly said that the Church was not happy with some of the provisions, as they went against Canon Law, but he pushed the amendments forward just the same, as that was in the interest of the country. This notwithstanding, I think he conceded too much.
During those negotiations, in Oliver Twist’s tradition, the Church continued to ask for more. The recent amendments to the Church-State agreement on marriage showed it should not have been difficult to accept less.
This ‘less’ was agreed to without going through negotiations that were “agonisingly slow” or “exasperating”.
One can quite rightly argue that times and people change and the official position of the Church changes with them. A very clear example is being manifested during the current debate on gay marriage and gay adoptions.
Fenech Adami is definitively among those ex-Jesuit students who absorbed and assimilated the Jesuitical mindset
The official position of the Episcopal Conference could be described as lukewarm or sensible, depending on one’s position. But it is problematic that in its aftermath, two pastoral strategies, not to say two theologie, of the relationship between the Church and society, were adopted by different members of the three-strong Episcopal Conference.
I have no reason to doubt that both positions were animated by the principled ‘come what may’ attitude. The dyadic strategy has to be studied well as the government now will force the country down the slippery slope leading to surrogacy and only God knows what else.
The Church is not in a felicitous situation, given that the handling of this particular issue is but one out of a series of signs pointing towards a crisis of leadership in our Archdiocese.
But I digress from Fenech Adami’s autobiography.
Similar to any other autobiography, the present one offers a personal and necessarily subjective interpretation of the events that troubled, contented and fashioned Malta and the Maltese.
The mosaic will be more complete when, and if, other political, social and religious leaders turn into raconteurs, providing us with their take on our recent history.
The more such stories are published, the more we can understand our collective DNA.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt