Church, Clean Thyself

Malta Independent
November 3, 2014

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-02/newspaper-leader/Church-clean-thyself-6736124810

In a way, Malta is not that important for the Universal Church. But the Church is important for Malta. At least, so far.

The Catholic Church is an important part of Malta's DNA. Even without taking into account the shady years until the 11th century, the Christian faith, and later the Catholic faith, became so intertwined with Malta's real essence they were for a long time one and the same.

That, we all agree, is slowly changing, glacier-like. The recent divorce referendum has shown a disaffection that has finally erupted into open defiance. Prior to that, there was a steady falling-off in church attendance. The monolith began to crumble.

That may have been the run of things, the normal course of evolution as a small insular island opens up to modern times and catches up with the rest of Europe.

But, as happened in other countries as well, this process is developing faster and perhaps irretrievable by the appearance in the public forum of scandals involving people associated with the Church.

There is today a new consciousness and awareness that was simply not there in past years. People are no longer ready to turn a blind eye to sins and mistakes just because those who committed them are, for instance, priests. People today have a heightened sensibility where sins of the flesh are concerned, especially where children or people with needs are involved. There is also increased encouragement for people who have been victims, maybe many years ago, to speak up and demand justice.

We are not speaking here about the story that has come to public knowledge this week, but of the many such stories that have come to public knowledge in the recent past. In many cases, the due processes of law are still ongoing. But public opinion, now more than in the past, goes beyond and many times pre-empts the due processes of the law and reaches its own judgement. Maybe that judgement can be premature, maybe influenced by the anti-Catholic voices around, maybe open to anti-church bias, but the greater risk is that the great charitable and other work by the Church gets tarred by association with the [few] miscreants.

That is why this paper, along with all those who wish the Church well and who appreciate the good it has done and is still doing in Maltese society, insists that the Church is long overdue for an internal cleaning exercise of its own. If it replies that this is what it has been doing, then the inevitable retort must be that it is clear this has not been enough, far from it.

It would seem clear too that the local church's own resources - its lay and clerical structures - do not seem to have been up to what was required of them. Now whether the Universal Church will deem it necessary to step in or whether there is a local solution to the problem is up to the Church itself to decide. But it is clear that it must act, and be seen to act in a credible and forceful manner.

The Church in Malta must make it clear, as other Churches have done including the Church in Gozo in a recent case, that it will not in any way be used to cover up for a miscreant and a person who has broken trust.

On a world-wide level, it has been said that cleaning the Aegean Stables proved to be too much for frail Pope Benedict XVI, and it would seem that cleaning up the local version proved to be too much for frail Archbishop Cremona.