Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo has a problem, he’s Catholic. He says that anyone standing up for his faith today runs the risk of becoming “ostracised” from the political scene. Politicians, he says, are more interested in running after the ‘liberal’ vote.
Pope Francis thinks Catholics need to get involved in politics, even if it may be dirty, frustrating and fraught with failure. Catholics should not simply look on from the balcony but “get right in there”, he says. Mr Vassallo is doing just that.
But what the Pope said in 2015 was nothing new. He was echoing a doctrinal note titled ‘The participation of Catholics in political life’, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over a decade before, when headed by Pope Francis’s predecessor, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. That doctrinal note in turn reflected Vatican Council II teachings and said Christians need to be active in the world, be involved in politics and reject relativism.
The note goes on to highlight the importance of ‘right to life’ issues including abortion, euthanasia and the rights of the embryo and, similarly, the protection of the family, the freedom of parents to educate their children, religious freedom and the need for a just economy, among others. All these issues are so very relevant to Malta today.
Malta has been embracing and enacting Western European liberalism at an increasing rate since the divorce referendum of 2011, when 52.67 per cent voted in favour. The Church had then campaigned unsuccessfully against introducing divorce and it has been a losing battle ever since.
The Embryo Protection Act followed in 2012 and Labour’s landslide electoral victory in 2013 led to a law on civil unions that established gay marriage in all but name. Other legislation followed like that on the vilification of religion and, still to come, are two draft laws on equality.
The Church has issues with all this legislation but does not seem to get its message through.
Seen in the contest of recent history and the politico-religious dispute of the 1960s, the Church’s influence upon society is receding fast. The problem is that there will be more battles ahead. Last summer’s debate on the sale of the morning-after pill saw slogans being put forward that are usually associated with pro-choice, pro-abortion lobbies.
When in Malta, Pope Benedict had said the world needed witness in the face of “so many threats to the sacredness of human life and to the dignity of marriage and the family”.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat recently praised a gay couple for adopting a disabled child who had been rejected by over 50 heterosexual couples. Gay couples and adoptions may be said to undermine the dignity of marriage but the Prime Minister gave gay marriage a human face that day.
It will take strong, principled Catholic politicians to give the Church the human face it needs to reach across and beyond politicians overwhelmed by the thrill of a liberal ideology based on relativism.
The Nationalist Party, with its one-time religio et patria slogan, is traditionally seen closest to the Catholic Church. But its leader, Simon Busuttil, while proud of the PN’s Christian roots, has denied the party is an exclusive club for Christians.
Catholic politicians are very much on their own, out in the cold and relying only on their Christian values.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna was clear on what lies ahead for them. He thinks the real test for Catholic politicians will be when they face a parliamentary vote on abortion or euthanasia. That’s when they would need to show their mettle.