Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo believes Christian politicians are being ostracised in the two major political parties. Kurt Sansone tries to understand the phenomenon.

Edwin Vassallo is a self-declared conservative who once complained about the moral burden placed on lawmakers by the proliferation of lap-dance clubs.

“What should I do in the face of pressure to allow these clubs that target sex tourism?” he asked in Parliament almost haplessly in 2003.

Much has happened in the 13 years since then. Censorship laws have been relaxed, the lap-dance clubs have mushroomed in Paceville, divorce has become legal, and gay couples can now join in a civil union with all the rights and obligations of marriage, including the adoption of children.

The Prime Minister recently described this social change as taking Malta from backwater status internationally to the forefront of civil rights. The Malta of today is unrecognisable from the country once described by Pope John Paul II as “Malta Cattolicissima”.

But much as the developments have been embraced by many, there is a growing unease in some sections of society that still hold dear to their faith.

Writing in Leħen is-Sewwa, the weekly newspaper of the Catholic Action movement, Mr Vassallo recently described Christian voters as politically homeless. “If [Christians] try to find a home in the Labour Party or the Nationalist Party, they could easily be left without a house,” he said.

He also reflected on the problems politicians like himself faced in their own parties. “The Christian logic is increasingly becoming a minority… in politics, when someone declares himself a Christian, it is as if he is saying something bad,” Mr Vassallo wrote.

Those who stood up for their faith also risked being “physically ostracised” from the political scene, he wrote, arguing that parties were more interested in running after “the liberal vote”.

“Today, the LGBT vote is of main interest, but over time, even this interest will wane and it will be taken for granted,” he said.

Mr Vassallo’s reflection ended in an attempt to dissuade Christians from organising themselves into a new political party that reflected their beliefs.

At a time when no political party would declare itself officially the home of Christians, Mr Vassallo added, believers had to make the parties their home by standing up for what they believe.

However, the idea of a new party inspired by Christianity has been floated by some who share some of his views.

Fr David Muscat, a priest from Mosta, advocated such a move in a contribution to the Times of Malta last October.

While rejecting “socialist millennialism, a deified Europe… [and] banana republic nationalism typified by Malta l-Ewwel u Qabel Kollox nonsense”, he cautioned against the PN’s present support for the Archbishop, since it revealed an “individualistic understanding” of the Church.

“Catholics in the PN should reorganise themselves under a different banner,” Fr Muscat said, citing the example of Lutheran Christians in Norway who left the Christian Democratic Party and reorganised as the Christians Party.

In politics, when someone declares himself a Christian,it is as if he is saying something bad

Fr Muscat acknowledged his was a voice in the wilderness, but some Christians have been organising themselves into an online lobby group.

Calling themselves New Christian Conservatives, they describe themselves as a movement focused on giving Christians and conservatives “their voice back in Maltese politics”.

In one of its latest posts on Facebook, the group praised Alleanza Bidla’s Ivan Grech Mintoff for setting up a crib featuring the Baby Jesus outside Parliament.

“Other political parties may be embarrassed to be seen to be too Christian. Not these guys,” the page administrators wrote.

How far these sentiments will influence the political scene could be hard to gauge. If the divorce referendum in 2011 is anything to go by, it would seem the strength of religion as a determining factor for how people vote has weakened.

Within the PL, the overarching charisma of leader Joseph Muscat has largely glossed over any Catholic dissent to the party’s reformist, civil rights agenda since he took the reins in 2008. However, the Prime Minister did face resistance within his parliamentary group last year when the legalisation of embryo freezing was floated. Since then, the government has desisted from proposing changes to the law.

The problem may be much bigger within the PN, which officially came out against divorce in 2011. The party’s decision to abstain on the civil unions law in 2014 was largely attributed to the strong resistance by its conservative wing, and since then, party leader Simon Busuttil has been reticent in talking about civil rights.

But for Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the real test for politicians who profess Christian values has not yet arrived, despite the introduction of divorce and civil unions.

“The real test would be a vote on abortion or euthanasia. It is these questions of life that show you the mettle of a politician when it comes to Christian values.”

Contacted for this piece, Mgr Scicluna said there were Catholic politicians abroad who failed the test.

“Our politicians have not come to that test, but I would hope that when they come to it, if they ever come to it, they will show they still embrace Christian values. You can’t say you adhere to Christian values and be in favour of abortion,” he said.

Mgr Scicluna hopes that at such a juncture, politicians will not allow their conscience to be hijacked by the party whips. “We had recently a nominee for the European Court of Auditors saying he had to vote against his conscience on an issue because of the party whip, and I think that is tragic.”

The reference was to Leo Brincat’s answers during a grilling at the hands of MEPs when he was asked about the Panama Papers scandal and his vote in Parliament in support of Konrad Mizzi.

Unlikely as treading on the abortion frontier may seem for the time being, it is a red line for government Whip Godfrey Farrugia, but his opposition does not stem from religious conviction.

On the contrary, he believes religion and politics should not mix. He shuns “a religious crusade” on such sensitive issues and insists he does not need the Catholic religion to tell him it is wrong to put the life of an embryo at risk.

“If we want to live in a more human and equal world, as politicians we should strive for the common good… How can I say an embryo is not a human life when I started my life as an embryo?” he said.

Dr Farrugia argued there were some rights more fundamental than civil rights, because they impacted the most vulnerable. “The biggest vulnerability is when the person is in his mother’s womb.”

Abortion may be the ultimate test of Christian conviction, but for politicians like Mr Vassallo, the concerns permeate at different levels. In his opinion piece, he hinted at a changing society where the “Christian logic in politics” was equated with “ignorance” and “the past”.

“I am not writing this because I want everyone to agree with me, but because I want to show what I believe in despite forming part of a minority,” he said.

kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com

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