Page 2, 27th August 1982

27th August 1982

Page 2

Page 2, 27th August 1982 — Vatican visit gives Malta time to cool
Close

Report an error

Noticed an error on this page?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it.

Tags

Locations: Rome

Share


Related articles

Mintoff May Stop Elections And Blame Church

Page 2 from 26th March 1981

Pope's Message To Maltese Catholics

Page 2 from 15th October 1982

Malta In Talks On Catholic Schools

Page 2 from 5th April 1985

Maltese Hopes For Settlement Still High

Page 1 from 14th January 1972

Malta To Host First Ever Papal Visit

Page 2 from 12th June 1987

Vatican visit gives Malta time to cool

by Christopher Howse ARCHBISHOP Joseph Mercieca of Malta has been in Rome for talks with the Pope. That should have given time for things to cool down back home where the Prime Minister, Mr Dom Mintoff has been whipping up Labour party aggression against the Church and particularly against the person of the Archbishop.
Archbishop Mercieca's office insists that he had planned to visit
Rome before the birthday speech-. which Mr Mintoff suggested that the Pope should remove him. Nor did the Pope send for him, though he will have been using the opportunity of the stay to talk with Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, head of the Vatican's Council for Public Affairs.
There is some feeling in Malta that Mr Mintoff has miscalculated in his outburst against Archbishop Mercieca and the Church
5e2141,03=--.41 general. There is ch anti-clerical feeling in the .Tbut since the 300,000
ics there form 94 per cent of the population, it is hardly to be expected that all members of the leading party, Labour, should support blind opposition to the Church.
During his birthday outburst at Birzebbuga, Mr Mintoff not only attacked the Archbishop, but advised Labour supporters to withold financial contributions to the Church. This he justified on the grounds of the Church's large possession of land on the island.
It is no real surprise that the Labour Party should repeatedly clash with the Church. For the last two years the nursing congregation known as the Blue Nuns have mounted a running battle in defence of their right to run a privately administered hospital, outside the Labour-inspired health service. It ended up with their licence being withdrawn and a well publicised exile of the nursing sisters from Malta. A similar fight continues over education policy.
The present clash arose after the government sacked or suspended workers who had taken part in an opposition-backed strike on June 29. The government claimed Church connivance. Some clergy condemned the goverment. But the bishops kept fairly quiet. They did not want to see the Church identified merely with a narrow political opposition.
As the Malta Sunday Times pointed out, the bishops could not issue a joint statement immediately in any case, as Bishop Cauchi of
coun rYen the bishops did speak it was to do no more than complain against the excessive severity of the workers' penalisation.
There was never any question of the Pope lacking confidence in the Archbishop. Even if this is the way things had been conducted in Malta, and it was not, as the firm control of Archbishop Mercieca's veteran predecessor Archbishop Gonzi showed, Pope John Paul is not the sort of man to let any regime make political capital out of a local church in difficulties.
Last November the Pope told Mr Mintoff his views of the Maltese bishops: "It gives me pleasure to render here witness to them. For I also know that their teaching about the moral life of the family and the Christian education of children, as well as supporting and furthering Catholic schools and other instituations of social assistance corresponds to the genuine spirit of the Gospel and to the values the Church today, as always, defends and exalts as its teaching."
The question remains as to how far Catholics within the Labour party on Malta can curb the extremism of Mr Mintoff's denunciations (and the outbreaks of mob hostility, shouting of obscenities and blockading of churches that followed Archbishop Mercieca about the island in the days before his Rome trip) and how far members of the Nationalist opposition are willing to relinquish the easy weapon of invoking the Church's name when they wish to strengthen their political stance.




blog comments powered by Disqus