It is customary for summertime to bring a lull in various proceedings, translating into an absence of news stories that tickle media and commentators’ fancy. This summer has been no different, yet a number of newsworthy events have demanded media and broader public attention.
Possibly the main one has been the agreement between the Government and Opposition to discuss the Auditor General’s report on Enemalta oil procurement in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The committee is to call before it some 60 witnesses, no less, although there may be a bit of double counting in that figure as a witness might have been named by both sides.
Running for close attention was the police fracas whereby a man was innocently charged for a crime to which another person pleaded guilty almost in the same breath. The case itself is important for the trauma caused to the innocent accused. He also painted a graphic side-story of four police officers surrounding him and pressing him to “confess” as thereby he would get a lighter sentence.
Four officers against one young individual? I thought the police force was understaffed. Evidently the way interrogations are conducted, including interrogating suspects in the late hours, bears investigating.
But the most significant story to date, though it has not attracted uniform attention, concerns the Catholic Church. On two counts. The Curia has again made it clear that it will not assume responsibility for the actions of two former priests found guilty of paedophilia. It offered moral support to the victims, but not compensation.
To my mind that is the gist of it. The pain suffered by the victims cannot and should not be rubbed off with money. Nevertheless the way the message came across from Mgr Charles Scicluna sounded too much like a splash of Pontius Pilate washing his hands. It was a dryly legalistic statement, obviously carefully phrased so as not to open fresh areas for counter action.
To err is human. But it is surely wrong to place the perpetrator of error in a position where perverse temptation could strike again
Again, legal attention had to be given to the statement. Yet not to the extent of coldness in the August heat. Monetary compensation is not on. Nevertheless, the Church is morally responsible for the action by the two former priests. Not just because they belonged to her, but also because of their dismal record and the way it did not lead to precautionary action. Rather the opposite – the priests, certainly one of them, were allocated to positions where their negative tendencies could push them to err again.
To err is human. But it is surely wrong to place the perpetrator of error in a position where perverse temptation could strike again and make them yield to it.
There is no escaping that. The Curia should be much clearer that it is conscious of that operational and moral responsibility.
The Church has also come under severe criticism over its attitude to irregular immigration. Granted, the issue is hot and full of unnecessary political connotations. Specifically, the Prime Minister’s statement that he was ready to consider all options in the context of failure by the EU countries to meaningfully share responsibility, continues to be misinterpreted and spun into a definite threat by him to push back boat-people to their country of embarkation.
The Church cannot be involved in political games – that much she has learned and is accepted. Nevertheless it would surely not be out of place for the bishops to speak out about immigration, about the growing tendency – no use denying it – to view it in racist terms. The Church can urge, as the bishops did urge, for there to be decent treatment of the boat people who end up in our midst. Serious action is required beyond that, to try to dislodge from their position Catholic Maltese whose attitude towards irregular immigrants is anything but Catholic.
Summer isn’t over yet and much more could unfold in the remaining weeks. Meanwhile it behoves the Church not to act as if the bishops were on holiday.