The Archbishop has introNEW HOPE

IN MAL'IlA DISPUTE
Catholic Herald Correspondent VALLETTA VALLETTA
FOR the first time in eight years, Archbishop Gonzi of Malta has had a meeting with Labour Party leader Dom Mintoff. It occurred last week, a day after the Archbishop announced that the interdict on Mr. Minton' and his executive would be lifted.
Archbishop Cardinale, the Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain and Malta, who had previously called on Mr. Mintoff for a long talk at his home, accompanied Mgr. Gonzi when he met Mr. Mintoff and Dr. Buttigieg at St. Joseph's Convent, Hamrun.
The meeting, which lasted an hour and a half, is said to have been very cordial. Mgr. Gonzi told Mr, Mintoff that he has never opposed the Labour Party as such, and that the difficulties have arisen from certain specific policies and attitudes it has adopted.
MEDIATION Well informed sources now glimpse the beginnings of a real hope that these differences may ultimately be composed, and that a new phase may be on the way.
Praising the Apostolic Delegate's mediation. they add that the new trend has in no way been imposed on Mgr. Gonzi, who has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the search for solutions.
It is becoming increasingly clear that many of the criticisms levelled at Mgr. Gonzi should really be aimed at certain clerical and lay elements who make it hard for him to be as progressive as he wants to be. He is not unaware that, in many respects, the Church in Malta has to catch up with the times, and this awareness, say those who know him, is remarkal.le in a man of his age.