MALTA
Malta Independent
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
by Martin Scicluna
The jury is still out on Francis I, who surprised the world only five months ago when he stepped out onto the balcony above St Peter’s Square in Rome as the 266th Pope. Since his election this Argentinian cardinal has won plaudits for his humility, common touch and way with words as he has said repeatedly he wants to lead “a poor church, for the poor”.
On his recent debut abroad in Brazil, the first Latin American pope injected a spring in the church’s step in the largest Roman Catholic country. In a long, informal press conference on the flight home, he also underlined the new style that his papacy has brought, heralding a softer tone on sexual issues and a tougher line on Vatican cliques – the latter having been the undoing of his cerebral but lacklustre predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Humble and plain-speaking, Francis’ energy and urgency on this trip were in marked contrast with the sense of drift that has afflicted the Church in the last decade. At a meeting of bishops, he called for a new “missionary spirit” and decried “obsolete structures”, strictures which should strike a distinct chord with the hierarchy of the Maltese Church. …
Pope Francis is clearly determined to clean out the Augean Stables at the Vatican. By contrast, the Maltese Church, against the trend of virtually every Catholic Diocese in the world which has been involved in child-abuse scandals and has agreed to pay financial compensation for priestly misdeeds, is resisting in the Maltese Courts any settlement with the ten victims concerned. It argues that the Maltese Archdiocese was never accused or convicted of having committed the criminal acts in question and it could not know in advance that some consecrated person or member was likely to commit a crime.
The Maltese Church would be more honest if it said plainly that its reason for resisting compensation to the victims is that it fears the financial consequences. But that should surely be beside the point, demonstrating too much earthly acquisitiveness and being utterly bereft of moral responsibility. Other Archdioceses around the world have gone bankrupt, and it may be that this must be the price to pay for restoring the Maltese Church’s integrity.
The central issue should be the well-being of those who have suffered as a consequence of the Church’s lack of care. To argue, as some have, that the victims are only in it for the money is cynical and a diversion. The victims are entitled to whatever the law will allow for the grotesque crimes perpetrated on them as children.
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