News • 24 August 2003

Our clergy’s fray – Rome will not seek consultation on archbishop

Matthew Vella

With months remaining to Archbishop Joseph Mercieca’s 75 birthday anniversary in November, Maltese Vatican insiders are being touted as ‘favourites’ to be chosen by Rome as Malta’s next archbishop.

These include Vatican-based Mgr Charles J. Scicluna, a widely respected canonist, and Mgr Alfred Xuereb. Both names are considered to be strong preferences in the choice of archbishop by Rome, according to MaltaToday’s sources.

Archbishop Joseph Mercieca is expected to resign later this year in November as he reaches 75.

Members of the clergy are claiming the Maltese Curia and the Holy See will not seek wide consultation with them on the choice for Mercieca’s successor. Likely choices have included Archbishop’s Seminary rector Fr Anton Gouder and Dar il-Providenza head Mgr Lawrence Gatt.

While there is private speculation that Gatt might have links with Opus Dei, sources close to MaltaToday have expressed their doubts. A former colleague said Gatt "in no manner possesses the same ideas traditionally associated with the conservative Opus Dei. This association is entirely new to me and quite unlikely. "

Holy smoke

Sources close to MaltaToday believe Vatican insiders such as Mgr Charles J. Scicluna could be likely candidates for the post of Archbishop.

Scicluna, a lawyer by profession, is based in Rome and was appointed as Promoter of Justice last October within the Vatican’s Congregation on the Doctrine of Faith. Still in his forties, he is also in charge of all cases involving alleged paedophilia and sexual abuses by members of the clergy.

"Scicluna’s presence in Rome is an important plus for any future archbishop. Like Joseph Mercieca, a presence on the island or ‘popularity’ with the people is not a necessary requirement," a priest told MaltaToday.

Another priest said Scicluna has the qualifications and intellectual qualities necessary to be archbishop. "However his pastoral experience is not sufficient due to his young age."

The congregation, led by the highly influential Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, promotes initiatives to spread ‘sound doctrine and defend those points of Christian tradition which seem in danger because of new and unacceptable doctrines.’

According to biographer John L Allen, the conservative Ratzinger is a fan of the founder of Opus Dei; Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. Reportedly one of the most powerful forces within the Vatican, Opus Dei’s main aim is ‘the sanctification of work,’ a claim backed by its infiltration within scientific, cultural, academic and political institutions to christianise the fields of human development.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Allen, a chronicler of the Opus Dei in Rome, however said that Scicluna was not a member of the Opus Dei, "at least in the technical sense that he’s not a priest of the prelature of Opus Dei. What his informal contacts may be I don’t know, though I know the world of Opus Dei in Rome fairly well and I’ve never heard him linked to it.

"Part of what makes this difficult to know is that being a formal member of Opus Dei is only one way of being ‘connected’. For example, a priest can be canonically diocesan, that is a priest of the archdiocese of Malta, but at the same time belong to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which is an Opus Dei-sponsored ‘club’ for priests. In that case, he’s not a ‘member’ but he’s certainly on the inside."

Pope John Paul II is considered to be a supporter of the movement, likewise lamenting the church-state divide in so many aspects of human society, so much that in 2002, the Pontiff called on Catholic lawyers not to co-operate in divorce proceedings.

According to Catholic writer Gordon Urquhart, John Paul II’s emphasis on Catholic teachings in the field of sexuality has led to the setting up of departments made up of Opus Dei members from the fields of medicine, politics and the academia.

Opus Dei’s founder Escrivá was a supporter of Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco and also of Hitler, who without his help Franco would probably not have won the civil war in 1938. Opus Dei also provided many cabinet members for the generalissimo. Escrivá died in 1975.

In the months leading up to his controversial canonisation in 2002, Pope John Paul II was actively lobbied by groups such as Bella Brigata, made up of former Opus Dei members and Escrivá intimates, who asked for the canonisation not to take place. The Brigata wrote about their knowledge of Escrivá’s "arrogance and malevolent temper, his unseemly quest for a title (Marquis of Peralta), his dishonesty, his indifference to the poor, his love of luxury and ostentation, his lack of compassion, and his idolatrous devotion to Opus Dei."

Pax Romana

Outspoken prison rights activist Fr Mark Montebello has lambasted what others have described as a feeble attempt by the Maltese Curia to gauge the opinion of clerics on the choice of future archbishop.

The clerical review ‘Pastor,’ distributed amongst members of the clergy recently attempted to survey its readers by asking them to choose out of a list of twelve qualities, ‘the five they would most like to see in the new archbishop.’

Writing in It-Torca, Montebello denounced the survey as ‘risible’, lambasting the Curia as ‘serfs’ of Rome, and claiming the Holy See has never sought any form of consultation with the clergy:

"Let everyone know that the choice of bishops is Rome’s solely, without anyone knowing what goes one behind its closed doors. And the choice is a political one, and not one based on Malta’s pastoral needs."

matthew@maltamag.com