It was blindingly obvious that Archbishop Charles Scicluna’s not-so-Good Friday retweet would cause an unholy ruckus in which he (and by extension the Catholic Church) would be caught in the crossfire between those who claim that it is perfectly legitimate for an archbishop to insert himself into a political discussion and those who feel that His Grace had crossed a partisan line one time too many.

The most disturbing part, perhaps, is that he felt comfortable enough to go ahead with that retweet in the first place. Admittedly, he was not himself the author of the tweet in question; but by reproducing it without either qualification or explanation (i.e. without a ‘covering tweet’), he was as good as endorsing it in its entirety. 

Claiming that the Archbishop has every right to engage in political commentary is not quite the same as agreeing with the way he does it or with the social media he elects to use. There is of course the argument that Popes (and Archbishops) are, almost by definition, innate politicians with much to say. After all they occupy a position of such eminence that they can introduce moral values from on high into public life, complementing local politics and pointing the way towards a fairer, more inclusive and more democratic society. But ‘inclusive’ has to be just that. When a tweet seems designed to needle and even insult a sizeable portion of the electorate (aka ‘flock’), a prominent cleric can’t really claim to be super partes or ‘all-embracing’ if he retweets it. 

Archbishop Scicluna has displayed a profound lack of political savvy

It’s one thing to defend the right to life, to preach the human dignity of immigrants, to speak for the poor or censure overdevelopment, and yes, anathematise the scourge of corruption (all places where politics and morality uncomfortably overlap). But ultimately it should be recognised that Catholicism is a spiritual force and the Archbishop a spiritual leader, not a political one.

And there’s the rub. I have in the past found Scicluna’s modus operandi less than Catholic (i.e. less than ‘universal’), although actually criticising him openly is still something I can’t quite get my head around. But he has made criticism thinkable, less uncomfortable and even doable. In some ways that’s probably a good thing, because it has rendered him the more human and fallible.  

So no, it’s not cool to share a blatantly party-political tweet associating the government with the mafia or the ndragheta. If you’re the Archbishop you’ve got to create a higher moral ground for yourself than that, even in the middle of a busy day prone to knee-jerk responses. And if you must tweet, then at least tweet on both sides, with detachment and consistency.

Which brings me to the inconsistency of those who are now waging a freedom-of-speech war against anyone with the temerity to criticise the Archbishop for that controversial tweet. The problem, as I see it, is not merely one of political partiality but also hypocrisy. There is little doubt in my mind that what these people mean is that the Archbishop has every right to take a political position, provided it is one with which they agree. Conveniently for them, he’s been tweeting from the same page. But imagine if the retweet had come from an enemy blog, and appeared to be an attack on a government they supported or an endorsement of something wholly unacceptable and reprehensible to them.  

I rather suspect that such public utterance would not sit well with them and I’m pretty certain that those currently granting the Archbishop and his sacrosanct opinions special immunity would now be supporting me shoulder to shoulder. By the same token, those who are today signing petitions for his removal would be feeling beatifically vindicated as he played right into their hands. The Archbishop may finally have understood that he is not acting the part in a costume drama set in the not-so-palmy days of British rule. He should be preaching the Christian doctrine of reconciliation and loving-kindness to a modern and independent Malta. And he should be striving to unite that country, not divide it.  

If the Labour and Nationalist parties have now to shed their respective pasts, so too has the Maltese Catholic Church – a past which, let’s face it, has not always been kind to Labour. On that score alone, Archbishop Scicluna has displayed a profound lack of political savvy which has surely not been lost on other members of the clergy.

In some other parallel world, I’ve of course been devastated by that terrible accident to the tourist double-decker bus. Perhaps Catholic Malta needs now to do what it does so well…pray for the repose of those two trusting, blameless souls and the speedy recovery of the many who were injured. And while we’re on our knees, we could pray for other things: for greater respect and Christian charity among ourselves, for our natural environment (please leave those trees alone!), and all the places we have no alternative but to share. If we are ever going to bury the hatchets and build the bridges, we need to forget about red and blue. And we need, supremely, the support, example and inspiration of our Archbishop.  

michelaspiteri@gmail.com