Mater Dei, Mother of something, or Mother’s Day?

By Mario Schembri Wismayer

It has been a long time in coming. After years of gestation, some of which were spent in embryonic limbo when, due to an unfriendly political climate no construction went on at all, the day when the new hospital will open its doors to patients is finally getting close.

A fresh milestone was reached when Prime Minister Dr Eddie Fenech Adami visited the site and announced last Wednesday that Malta’s brand new hospital is to be named ‘Mater Dei’ – Mother of God.

Malta Today decided to check just how many people know what Mater Dei means. We started by asking some people in the office.

"Mother of something," someone hazarded vaguely.

It turned out that no one at the office knew what Mater Dei means.

So we asked a random sample of people which we picked from the phone book.

Ring-ring, ring-ring.

"Hello?" "Good Morning. Malta Today here. Do you know what Mater Dei, the name of the new hospital, means?" "What?" "Mater Dei. The name of the new hospital at Tal-Qroqq." "Mater what?" "Mater Dei. Do you know what that means?" "Something religious, I suppose." "Yes. Could you be more specific?" "No. Not really." "It means ‘Mother of God’. Ok, thanks. Bye"

Click. Ring-ring, Ring-ring.

"Hello?" "Good Morning. Malta Today here. Do you know what Mater Dei, the name of the new hospital, means?" "What?" "Mater Dei." "Mother’s Day? Of course I know! It’s the special day for all mothers! We buy flowers, chocolates, take them to eat out . . ."

"No, no. Excuse me. I said ‘Mater Dei’ not Mother’s Day . . ." "Oh! No. Sorry."

"It means ‘Mother of God’. Ok, thanks. Bye"

And so it went on for ten phone calls.

Only one person answered correctly. Which is a bit ironic, considering that in Catholic Malta, were all the terraced houses seem to be named after either an English or American town, a saint, or a combination of two Christian names, nobody seems to know what Mater Dei means.

Most people we phoned, however, couldn’t pass up the chance to say that rather than worry about the meaning of the name, their main concern was that the new hospital would be run effectively and be user-friendly.

Some people complained about the deplorable standard of hygiene and lack of privacy at St Lukes and hoped that the new hospital would prove to be better on at least these two counts.