Mintoff may stop elections and blame Church

By Christopher Howse MR DOM MlNTOFF, Prime Minister of Malta may use his battle against Church authorities to postpone the general election due next February, under the Corrupt Practices Act.
He has accused the Archbishop of Malta of supporting the Nationalist opposition and has banned several Church functions on state premises.
Last week The Times newspaper was banned in Malta after it reported on government dealings with the judiciary. The courts had been closed when the Blue Sisters appealed against the expropriation of their hospital. Mr Mintoffs next target is private schools. Church schools cater for one in three of Maltese children.
Mr Mintoff was particularly enraged last week by a pastoral letter from both Malta's bishops, Archbishop JOseph Mercieca and Bishop Nicholas Cauchi which insisted on the Church's rights to run schools and hospitals.
After it was read out in churches he accused the archbishop of trying to engineer a split between his Socialist government and the Vatican in a bid to help the Nationalist Party in the coming elections". due next February.
For Mr Mintoff the nub of the argument is a meeting he had with representatives of the Private Schools Association, on October 1 1980.
Mr, Mintoff wants the agreement reached then to be implemented now. But when the association members consulted with the archbishop he told them the conditions were unacceptable to the Church. Since then Mr Mintoff has entered into correspondence with the Vatican and refuses to negotiate locally.
But Archbishop Mercieca seems to have full Vatican backing. On October 20, Cardinal Casaroli wrote to him saying "The competent Congregation justly deplores that the religious who accepted the proposals were not authorised either by the Religious Superiors, nor by Your Excellency nor by the Holy See": Cardinal Baum, of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education put the matter once more in the archbishop's hands.
In this month's pastoral, the bishops said: • "Parents should have a choice of schools, and this a real one. A monopoly in this sector is contrary to the natural rights of parents. Parents should defend this right from any unjust interference."
Mr Mintoff still wants to avoid any 'duplication', by limiting private schools and expenditure on Church schools.
The bishops say "Children of all the people should benefit from the nation's educational budget. To have this there must be financial aid by the State for all schools.
On this point Pope John Paul II. in his message to the Heads of State who had signed the final Act of Helsinki, insists on the need of "freedom for families to choose the schools ... without having to sustain, directly or indirectly. extra charges which would in fact deny them
this freedom.—
They conclude: "Church schools are therefore not institutions which the Church can give up and renounce, unless made to do so by force."
Defending themselves from a charge of political interference they say: "The Church has the right to pass, without hindrance, moral judgments even in matters relating to politics whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls require it."
After Mr Minton outburst they said: "We strongly deplore and condemn every attempt from any quarter, which tries to link the pastoral letter with some partisan ideology."
Tne Private Schools Association has reached a new formula after talks with the archbishop, but Mr Mintoff has stopped dealing with them. If the Prime Minister continues his attack on Church schools and the bishops, and there is no reason to suppose he will not, more trouble may be expected in the months leading up to the elections.