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Behind the façade, the real story
The euphoria and overwhelming love towards the ailing and frail Pope John Paul II will never be forgotten.

But then if appearances are anything to go by, we should all be taking a closer inner look at our real selves.

If spirituality has to be gauged by presence and theatrics, then we are indeed a religious people.

But in reality we are more form than content.

There is a core group of people who are honest, well meaning and upright Catholics but a good percentage are what modern day Catholics are made of - sinners and hypocrites.

All the concern for honesty, peace and love is difficult to decipher when it comes to the activities that govern our every day life.

Let us look at a few concrete examples.

What constitutes honesty in our view?

Is profiteering, corruption, tax evasion, telling the untruth, living a double life or it cheating on others unkind ?

And when we talk of peace, are we referring to the villages or towns that divided along political lines or have deadly feud between rival band clubs?

Should we remind ourselves that there is not one year that goes by when a feast does not spiral into a feast of violence, vulgarity and paganism.

And what do we have to say when it comes to sports and politics.

And then we have love, that buzz-word that has many facets to it.

We express love for each other and then invest all our energies in dismantling the life of others, cutting people to pieces and destroying them.

Roman Catholicism in Malta also has a noble and ugly past.

It is the religion that has given us our face, but it is also the religion that has cast dark shadows over our history.

Let us not forget the cultural developments that were halted because of Church hysteria.

The late fifties and early sixties that saw church organisations such as Azzjoni Kattolika and even the Museum turn into uncompromising zealots.

Let us not forget the religious persecution, the demonisation and, more so, the ignorance that was promoted.

But then let us not forget the sterling work carried out by hundreds of religious and lay people for the sick, the elderly, the youth and the orphans of Malta.

Nevertheless, we have to recognise that the Church is changing, albeit slowly. It is a mixture of ultra-conservatism and raging socialism.

It expresses itself in favour of social reforms, against the threat of rampant capitalism but then it continues to imbue its followers with dogmas over sexual practices, matrimonial habits and others.

Those who have an eye to the world will confer that the status of the Church in Malta is unique, it is not a stereotype of the Church in the Western hemisphere. The Church influence in the real world has become symbolic. It is stronger in those parts of the world which are dominated by poor people and uncultured masses.

Malta has more Catholicism than anyone else because of its island, geographical and historical status. We should not forget that we have been brought up with the impression that we are the centre of Catholic faith.

A case in point is the denial by revisionist historians, who claim (wrongly) that Islam never set foot in Malta, although it was ruled for hundrends of years by Moslems.

This may be hard to take in but it is the truth.In Europe the Church has had to close down its churches, change its activities, because of lack of interest and attendance or the complete disappearance of priests, nuns or monks.

The reality is that in many parts of Europe, the Catholic Church is regarded as outdated and out of synch. To Malta and the Maltese, this is not the case, what the future has is store for us, no one can really tell.

Ready for a fight
The temptation does exist to live a tranquil life away from the noise and flatulence of modern society. How much simpler it would be if we scribbled stories about the weather, the sports results, the launch of a new brand of baby diapers and devoured titbits at official receptions.
We cannot pretend to be the harbinger of the gospel, but neither do we wish to become facsimiles of officialdom.

We are referring here to the libel cases that have been instituted against this newspaper. It is abundantly clear that some people want us to look the other way.

We know that with the Maltese courts we face little or no chance of a victory, we are strong critics of ‘some’ members of the judiciary and their vested interests and we do not expect to be treated with kids’ gloves when we appear before them.

But our message is clear.

There are elements in this country that must be vilified, exposed and dissected.

There have been others before us who have tried and failed, but this newspaper does not have an election to win or a silly Press Club award to show off as a trophy.

Indeed we are party to none of these antics.

No, this newspaper has one commitment; to relay the news.

And this time we aren’t simply willing to take up the challenge, but are tuned for a long, drawn-out fight.