News • 28 September 2003

Some blasphemous thoughts

Saviour Balzan may be branded a blasphemer for this article although by European standards, it’s the Christian fundis who are playing the heretics

It is reported that Christians all over Europe are signing a petition calling on the European Commission to include the word God and to make reference to Christianity in the new constitution. What is definite and certain is that a Maltese group led by an English-speaking fundamentalist group are driving home a vigorous campaign for the inclusion of two fundamental words in the European constitution.
When Europe came into being it was thankfully a non-secular group of states. Luther, the French revolution and the wars in the Italian states did much to downsize the power of the Catholic Church. And when the European Union came about the last thing they had in mind was redesigning space for a Church that had done little in promoting the European values they considered sacred.
The Maltese Christian fundis are obviously unaware that from the tip of Portugal to the Arctic circle, the Churches no longer retain a central role in the workings of society.
It could be a bad thing or a good thing, but one thing is certain – at no time in the history of humankind has the social fabric of European society been so high. Never before has poverty been so contained, the quality of life so high and the fringes in society so looked after and integrated.
If it were for the Catholic Church we would use condoms as balloons, consider sex an evil pleasure, homosexuality a disease and a working woman a sinner.
In the centuries before the welfare system came into being when autocracy was the name of the game and the Church was the alpha and omega of society, there were the very poor and the very rich and nothing in between.
In Malta, God has a special place, more so because the word is used intermittedly by Maltese-speaking Maltese. God indeed is a keyword in the blasphemous pep talk that takes place from morning to night in the bars, homes and work places of Malta and Gozo. Fortunately English-speaking Maltese prefer to use the ‘f’ word and less ungodly words, but I am sure that if it sounded culturally and linguistically acceptable they would resort to it in the shortest possible time.
Indeed we have two different types of Gods in Malta, the one for the ‘puliti’ and the one for the ‘hamalli.’ Even when Maltese come to worship God, they do so along cultural and class divisions.
We are truly the nation with probably the highest quota of God- references per second, per day in the whole universe.
Europe does not talk of Christians or Moslems but it refers to society with a set of rules and moral obligations. Those obligations are not a prerogative of Christianity, though many Maltese fundis still think so.
Sure, Christianity has its attractions when compared to Islam, and the same can be said of Protestantism versus Catholicism.
But obviously Maltese fundi Christians are missing the whole point of the European constitution. With the vision of Europeans integrating at some point in the future with the Balkans and Turkey – a reference to Christianity would not make much sense. The number of Muslems in these new nations is relatively high.
Neither would it make sense to the continental Europeans including the Italians who have succeeded in drawing very clear frontiers between Church and State.
The collection of signatures in Malta kindles the first knee-jerk reaction against Europe from essentially typical Christian fundis who are traditionally not Labourites and hence Nationalists. They are now coming to terms with the social implications of Europe, a far cry from the conservatism of Maltese society.
When I militated in the campaign for Europe, I did so because of the wider implications of European integration. And I always stated that eventually a large segment of Nationalist voters, namely the tax evading entrepreneurs and professionals and the core Catholic groupings would turn against Europe.
The chance for Malta to bridge out and open up culturally, and by culture I mean in the wider sense, can only be brought about by integration into Europe.
We have this notion that to be good one must be a Christian and better still, a believer. It depends what we mean by ‘good.’ To be good in more than the simple sense can be achieved without adherence to a religion.
Europe should know, more than 80 per cent of its citizens are non-practising Christians or Muslems.