Like 200,000 or so people this weekend I listened to Archbishop Cremona read the Lenten pastoral letter published by our bishops. Unlike circa 170,000 of them I think I understood its intended message.

I had a number of advantages on most of the members of the congregation. I studied theology and got a better result than some form two students. Besides I read the pastoral letter before going to Mass, and heard it being read during the three Masses (only three this weekend) I celebrated. Most of the people in the congregation heard it being read only once; some could read it while listening to it and others could follow it on video.

The content of the letter had internal logic. Each of its three sections flowed one from the other. Besides, listening to it attentively one could even learn one or two new things. I did not know, for example, that the term diaspora was also applied to the Exodus experience. Tikber u titghallem, they say.

However, I think, most people attending Mass felt lost with the references to the Exodus and the Exile. The first event they know from its depiction in films; the second most have never heard of. And whenever one feels lost by the beginning of what is intended to be a communicative exercise one would stop listening.

A friend of mine told me that during the most recent live-in organised for parish priests as part of their permanent formation they listened to a ninety minute lecture on the concept of diaspora by one of Malta’s best biblical scholar. He was thrilled. Try to reduce that to a ten minute rendering on audio tape and most will find it much less than thrilling.  The method currently used to write pastoral letters and divulgate them risks, many times, of falling between two stools. Either it is too difficult to understand or it seems too simplistic.

I think that one of the problems about pastoral letters is the medium used. There is not a lot that one can do unless the exercise is only secondarily a Church based one and unless it is tied to some concrete action that accompanies it.

A rethink of the whole process is sorely needed for pastoral letters to be a meaningful communicative experience.