News • October 12 2003

Understanding Malta 2003: a church odyssey

The church has to come to terms with today’s reality Fr Rene Camilleri tells Kurt Sansone

The news that men of the frock have allegedly abused minors in their care came as jolt in the blue. It shocked Catholic Malta, but not Fr Rene Camilleri.
"For those who were in their right senses this issue has been long coming," Fr Camilleri says of the whole affair.
"We are a small country, very religious, with a relatively high presence of clergymen, and it is definitely a big shock. But we were waiting for it to surface. Similar allegations have come out in the US, Ireland, Australia and other countries and it was just a question of time before something similar was revealed in Malta."
I meet Fr Rene at the University where he teaches fundamental dogmatic theology and ecumenism. He has no qualms about the need for justice to be done. If the abuse happened, he argues, the perpetrators should be punished. But Fr Rene also has a word or two to say about how the media handled the affair.
"To be fair, the Maltese Church did not sit back and do nothing. When the Response Team was founded in 1999 the Maltese church was aware that such things would come to light. It did not create the Team to keep everything hushed up within. It was created to be an investigative structure without interfering with the course of justice. The church holds no one from reporting cases of abuse to the police, but if in this country we have persons who are not capable of reporting abuse to the police because it involves a priest then we cannot blame the church for this."
I ask Fr Rene whether the church would rather not talk about these things.
"No, I think these things should be talked about and it is important they come out in the open. But if there is a police investigation going on, why was this case used in a TV programme. Should we start having juries by televoting?"
Fr Rene uses harsh words but quickly points out that he does not want to be understood as blaming the media. "It has an important function in society. But in the frenzy huge spotlights have been lit on one particular home and on four particular persons. If punishment is due it should be given, no doubt, but it should not be a newspaper editor or a TV producer, or myself to deal out the punishment."
In the past, names of accused persons have also surfaced in the media without people having moral hang ups on whether the right thing was done or not. I ask Fr Rene whether he argues this way because the persons involved happen to be priests.
"No, I want to be clear on this. A priest is like any other common citizen. A priest does not enjoy privileges and should not enjoy privileges. But I am against the publishing of names before justice has been served, whether it involves common citizens or priests. This is an ethical principle."
But this debate is superfluous, I tell Fr Rene, when the church has on its hands what could possibly be the biggest crisis for decades.
He agrees that the problem is very big. "But I ask one question: the way the media has handled the whole issue, has it simply used the problem or has the media worked for a solution? What will happen now? Will investigations continue moving ahead? Will those who were abused get justice? Will punishment be served?"
I insist the police have been accused of delaying investigations and these were only kick started in earnest after Bondiplus went on air.
"If the police delayed investigations because the persons involved were priests, that is something to condemn, indeed it is very serious in a democratic society," Fr Rene says.
However he insists it was not fair to cast a dark shadow on one particular home without the minimum of respect for the children currently residing there and the team of care workers.
"I have heard of children living at St Joseph Home who have been victimised at school because of what occurred. I am in no way justifying the abuse. What happened was very bad and justice must be served.
"But why can’t we see the problem in its wider dimension? My concern is that there could be a much wider problem and the media focus has narrowed it to one particular case. I believe that the problem could be more wide spread."
The media here, including
MaltaToday, did nothing different from what would be expected of it in other European countries where names of alleged paedophiles are published. But Fr Rene has his reservations.
"The difference between Malta and other countries is that in this country everybody knows each other. The unfairness is not in the publication of the name. If these priests are taken to court and the judge sends them to prison, I have no problem that the names appear in newspapers. But I would object, like I have done in the past, when names appear when the court case has not yet even started. It is deplorable that persons are identified and splashed all over the news when they are still accused."
I suggest that being a small country we are also prone to omerta, which helps perpetrators to literally get away with murder.
"I condemn omerta even if this comes from the church," Fr Rene responds.
He argues that one of the deficiencies that came to the fore was the church’s lack of public relations.
"I would have expected the church to react immediately once the allegations were out and not allow a whole week to pass by. To give the archbishop the benefit of the doubt he was abroad, but I would have expected the church to organise a press conference the day after, not to defend or excuse the actions, but to explain the situation.
"If the Maltese church does not deal with this problem with foresight and implement a strategy, we will be making a mistake because what will happen is that the problem will be forgotten until another scandal erupts two or three years down the line.
"This has been a jolt for the church. It needs to come to terms with this situation and has to find ways of monitoring its homes."
I veer the discussion onto the relevance of the church and its teachings in today’s society. Fr Rene is under no illusion.
"Malta is no longer isolated. Next year we will join the EU, although even if we chose not to enter, the bastions have long come down. We have lived for long in a cultural fortress, but today we are living in a pjazza. Institutionalised religion in Malta is also in a crisis as it is the rest of Europe. Less people attend mass, less will probably get married through the church, less will give importance to the church’s teachings.
"In the recent past the Maltese church has rested on its laurels just because the majority of people went to mass and participated in religious celebrations."
Fr Rene muses on the evolving culture and argues that the church has a big challenge to try and understand what is happening and communicate its beliefs effectively.
"The church has serious problems of communication. My biggest challenge is how to communicate what I believe in, what my church stands for, including those beliefs that go against the prevailing current, to the emerging culture. Malta is in a transitory period with new lifestyles and values emerging. The church has to understand the prevailing culture and its own role, which is also influenced by society. But I have my doubts whether this will be solved by the synod. We have to address today’s people."
I am not convinced by the argument and elicit one particular example. The church remains adamantly opposed to the use of condoms even in a continent such as Africa that is ravaged by an Aids epidemic.
"There are things which the church has to reflect seriously on," Fr Rene says, acknowledging the problem. "The church’s history is peppered with issues when the church did change its position. There are things today the church has to reflect on more deeply. I ask myself in 10 or 20 years time, what position will the church be holding as regards the proliferation of Aids? Will it still maintain its stand on the use of condoms? Will it still maintain its position on the use of contraceptives by married couples?
"I believe that the church has to come to terms with certain things. It needs to deeply reflect on certain issues. We cannot continue to believe that the church is a self-contained reality, as if it were a mother telling its flock what to do. That age has come to an end."
Institutionalised religion faces another problem, that of personalised spirituality or rather do-it-yourself religion without the need to have any institutional reference point.
"This is a big challenge," Fr Rene says. "Up to a few years ago nothing was personalised. Today, everything is personalised, even a mere car number-plate. But I believe that if anything should be personalised it should be spirituality."
Fr Rene says that the church in its first millennium of existence was very up to date with spiritual and cultural pluralism. "The church’s mystics were not the yes-men we often portray them to be. There were mystics who were rebels. However, the age of secularisation and today’s culture has thrust into crisis spirituality imposed from above."
Fr Rene says that spirituality imposed from above has no sense and value because it is impregnated with religiosity. "Religiosity does not necessarily lead one to faith. I can hear mass every day and not have faith. But I can have faith and abhor religion. The church needs to explore this challenge. It is not a threat. The role of the church must be that of stimulating people to embark on their personal spiritual search. Up to 50 years ago thinking was a sin. Today it is a sin not to think."
With the Archbishop’s term coming to an end in November this year I ask Fr Rene for his opinion on what characteristics the next successor should have.
"What is important is that when the new archbishop opens his mouth, either through a press release, press conference, celebrating mass or addressing people, he would be addressing contemporary Malta not an illusionary image or the Malta he would like it to be."
Fr Rene was one of the members of the MLP-appointed commission to study the reasons for defeat at the polls. He says that the Labour Party was "stubborn" and "entered a dead end ally," when I ask him why it lost two consecutive elections and a referendum.
"Politics is about respecting people and change. When a political party becomes rigid in its thoughts it is doomed to failure. This weakness in the Labour Party made it easy for the PN to win. Unfortunately, today even months after the election the PN’s strength is primarily owed to Labour’s confusion and weakness."
Before rounding off the discussion I ask Fr Rene about the recent controversy on whether the EU Constitution should make reference to God and Europe’s Christian roots.
"The EU Constitution is not a thank you card. It should reflect the current cultural and social outlook of Europe. The Constitution should not be confessional, but I believe that it should make reference to core beliefs or values, not necessarily by referring to God. Europe does not yet have an identity of its own and I wouldn’t be far off mark to say that most of Europe’s core beliefs and values are rooted in
Christianity."