Most of us must have heard of Noah, his contemporaries and the deluge; fewer have heard about the ‘Scorpioni’. Noah’s contemporaries and the ‘Scorpioni’ had one thing in common: they were too sure of themselves, and hence unable to see a threat, even when the writing was on the wall. The former ignored Noah’s prophetic message, and the latter failed to read the signs of the times. I find them quite an apt representation of several present-day Catholics and other Christians.
The iconic story of Noah is a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Holy Books tell us that the flood was punishment for wrongdoing by Noah’s contemporaries. In spite of Noah’s warnings about the impending punishment, they ignored him. As Jesus tell us: “they went on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the time when Noah entered the ark, and they were taken unawares, when the flood came and drowned them all”.
The ‘Scorpioni’ are central to the autobiographical 1999 film directed and co-authored (with John Mortimer), by Franco Zeffirelli entitled Tea with Mussolini. This film portrays the tragic-comic drama of a group of British and American travellers who were on an indefinite visit to pre-World War II Italy to soak up European culture – in the Grand Tour’s style.
The grande dame of the group was Lady Hester Random, widow of an ex-British ambassador. The others were Mary Wallace, who supported herself by typing colourful Italian into English, Elsa Morganthal, a flamboyant wealthy American collector of modern art, a cheerful lesbian Georgie Rockwell and eccentric would-be artist Arabella. They were nicknamed the ‘Scorpioni’ because of their stinging wit.
They lived in a cultural bubble, ignorant or ignoring what was happening around them: to the extent that one of them described Mussolini as “just a man who made the trains run on time”.
Their inability to read the signs of the times is exhibited by their response to the rise of fascism: naïve Lady Hester went to Rome for tea with Mussolini and believed his assurance “that she and her British friends have nothing to worry about”. Then she posed with Mussolini for photos that would be useful propaganda (a British ambassador’s wife having tea with a dictator and finds him to be a nice chap).
It was only when the Black Shirts were breaking the windows of the tea room that they started to smell a rat. When Elsa forged orders and funds to have the ‘Scorpioni’ move from barracks-like accommodations to an upper class hotel, Lady Hester believed that Mussolini himself had issued the orders: to the extent that she proudly waved the newspaper photo of her tea with Il Duce.
Several Maltese Catholics – among them some who carry weight in the Maltese Church – have been behaving in a similar way to Noah’s contemporaries and the ‘Scorpioni’. They are either in a state of denial or incapable of coping with change.
Several people are losing the faith and many more are leaving the Church. What pastoral action is being taken? Apart from some cosmetic changes, it is always ‘la solita minestra riscaldata’; old strategies for fresh problems. When substantial and critical changes were suggested or initiated, they were, for one reason or another, short-lived.
My generation was brought up full of enthusiasm in the spirit of Pope John XXIII and Vatican II. However, resistance to aggiornamento (change) has had the upper hand. An administrative reform authorised by Pope Paul VI himself, brought again a beam of hope. It was slowly but surely soft-pedalled.
Several structures were put up, but the spirit instilled in them was old. The uniforms were changed, but those who wore them, weren’t. Two major structures resulting from Vatican II, namely, the Pastoral Council and the Presbyterial Council, became ineffectual. They did much more talking than walking.
Thank God, we now have the golden Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). What are the odds against it? Should one be pessimistic? If so, one has not read Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation (or has read it with tainted glasses). Dare we heed his words that “an ecclesial renewal cannot be deferred”?
joe.inguanez@gmail.com
Fr Joe Inguanez, a sociologist, is the executive director of Discern.