Last week Fr Joe Borg broke ranks and wrote what has long been muttered sottovoce for a long time. In a nutshell, he said that the Church in Malta is facing a crisis of leadership and that the powers-that-be should get their act together or risk being relegated to an irrelevant institution – a pale, stale and male organisation whose role is limited to dress-up outings at the annual village feast and other ceremonies.
It would be putting it lightly to state that this assessment did not go down well for a number of reasons. Firstly, there’s the nature of the messenger. Ever since he was a quasi-permanent feature on Lou Bondi’s weekly talk show – back when Bondi was a Nationalist flag-waver and not a highly-paid master of ceremonies for Joseph Muscat – Fr Borg has been perceived as being firmly aligned with the Nationalist camp.
This perception has been strengthened by the fact that he was appointed as ministerial consultant during the Nationalist administration and by the general tone of some of his columns.
I find that most people have no issue with members of the clergy gathering under a political banner. The problem crops up when that political banner keeps getting waved around in our faces and we’re left wondering whether the message from the pulpit is simply that relayed from the PN’s Pietà headquarters.
So public perceptions about Fr Borg’s political leanings may explain the outright hostile reception to his article from some quarters.
I have no truck with priests who are political pompom boys for one party or another – there have been too many causes of political polarisation in this country without the Church getting in on the division act.
Recently the Church has been ridiculed for its outdated mode of communication. If it continues in this manner, it will be completely ignored
However, it would be foolish to disregard the content of Fr Borg’s article in its entirety simply because of his political allegiances or the presumed jockeying for power and influence behind the Curia walls.
To do so would mean that the leaders of the Church in Malta are falling victim to the siege mentality that has laid low so many organisations and institutions.
Considering every observation or criticism as a badly motivated attack is the first step towards blocking any possibility of improvement.
By dismissing all criticism as the playing of power games of people who want to harm the Church, the institution is losing out on the possibility of change and improvement.
This would be a pity because it still has a wealth of resources and a bank of goodwill which can be a force for the good.
In a world of shilly-shallying politicians – prisoners to their popularity ratings – we still need leaders who speak with conviction.
Silence and inertia will be the final shove towards irrelevance. Mahatma Gandhi is reputed to have said that when dealing with enemies, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
The Church in Malta seems to be playing out this process in reverse. From a position of nearly absolute strength in the 1950s and 1960s, it had embarked on a political war alienating half the country.
Recently it has been ridiculed for its outdated mode of communication. If it continues in this manner, it will be completely ignored.
Its current plight reminds me of the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s song Dancing in the Dark.
Springsteen writes: “I get up in the evening and I ain’t got nothing to say. I come home in the morning, I go to bed feeling the same way. I ain’t nothing but tired. Man I’m just tired and bored with myself.”
If this impression is to be dispelled, it has to be done with the fire of conviction. And as the same song continues: “You can’t start a fire without a spark.”
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt