Between God and Caesar

If you had to trace back the seed of the Mater Dei hospital, you can only take it down to one person – MGR CHARLES VELLA.

Like the Blessed Mother Theresa, Mgr Charles G. Vella thinks that throughout his life he was merely “a pencil in the hands of God.” Like Mother Theresa, he stands out as a successful lobbyist who never hesitated from approaching the powerful in order to realise his dreams.
Yet despite the ephemeral nature of pencil writing, it would be difficult to erase the legacy of a man who amidst great controversy set up the Cana Movement in 1954. Till the present day, choosing to marry in church entails attending the marriage courses introduced by Dun Charles with the Cana Movement.
As Archbishop Gonzi’s media man he also had a prominent role in the unfolding of Maltese history during the epochal clash between the church and the MLP. As the Church’s first PRO he was deeply involved in the political events at the time.
He admits having reservations on the imposition of mortal sin on Labourites. “I was conscious that the interdict would have created great divides within Maltese families. Conscious of this I urged the Archbishop that if an interdict should be imposed at all it should be limited to members of the MLP’s executive rather than all party members.”
But according to Vella, Gonzi was a good listener. Gonzi asked him to make his case in front of other church dignitaries and on that occasion the Archbishop decided to limit the infamous interdict to the members of the MLP’s executive.
God’s pencil also left his mark in Milan where he worked alongside Dun Luigi Verze in the San Raffaele Hospital. His experience in San Raffaele gave him the chance of befriending some its most powerful and influential patrons like Bettino Craxi, whom he visited three times in Hammamet at the time of the former Italian PM’s self-imposed exile when he was escaping from the grip of the Mani Pulite judges.
The outspoken priest is not embarrassed by his friendship with the former premier. He admires him for calling a spade a spade by admitting that like all party leaders he used to accept illegal financing for his party. Dun Charles insists that Craxi was simply following the norms of the political system prevailing at that time.
He also criticises Italian President Ciampi as “heartless” for refusing to authorise Craxi’s return to Italy to get cured by Professor Rigatti in San Raffaele in Milan. Craxi ended up dying in exile in Tunisia.
Yet one of Dun Charles’s projects, that of bringing San Raffaele to Malta, has been erased. In the 1990s Dun Charles had successfully lobbied the Nationalist government in starting the construction of a state-funded 400-bed hospital and research centre managed by the Monte Tabor foundation which runs a chain of San Raffaele hospitals in various countries in the world, offering free of charge specialised health care.
“As soon as I saw with my own eyes the greatness of San Raffaele, I wished that Malta would benefit from this experience.”
Ministers John Rizzo Naudi and Louis Galea were also carried away by Dun Charles’s vision and the project took off, amidst great political controversy on the awarding of tenders for the hospital’s construction.
But upon his election as Prime Minister, Alfred Sant took the decision to part ways with San Raffaele and embark on the building of an even greater 800-bed general hospital. Two years later, upon the re-election of Eddie Fenech Adami in 1998, work on building this general hospital continued and instead of San Raffaele, the overgrown hospital was baptised Mater Dei, a project which has proved to be one Lawrence Gonzi’s biggest financial headaches.
The project remains unfinished right up to this day.
Dun Charles is still bitter on this matter and he squarely blames Alfred Sant and the “barons” in the medical profession for frustrating his dream. “Alfred Sant informed us on his decision in the most inelegant of ways,” although he fails to elaborate.
He attributes Sant’s decision to discontinue the San Raffaele project to a pre-electoral pact between certain doctors and Alfred Sant in which they agreed to get rid of San Raffaele. “Doctors were afraid of competition. They would have no longer remained the barons in the medical field. They also had financial concerns because doctors in San Raffaele are only allowed to perform private practice within the confines of the hospital instead of roaming in various clinics around the island. They simply did not like our methods.”
According to Dun Charles, the decision to build another general hospital is a mistaken one because the international trend is to build smaller specialised hospitals. “If the project continued as planned it would be already open. Unfortunately 10 years later the hospital has not yet opened. I still cannot understand how those who said that San Raffaele was my personal caprice embarked on something which was even bigger,” he says laconically.
But how would have Malta benefited from spending millions of liri on a specialised hospital catering for 400 beds? According to Dun Charles, the country would have benefited from hosting an “institute of excellence” equipped with the best medical technology in the world.
He also insists that it does not make sense to have a hospital without a research institute, something that he finds to be completely lacking in Malta. He says Malta would also have benefited from having a hospital with links to a chain of like-minded hospitals in the world. He cites the use of tele-medicine, through which specialists in Italy through the use of satellite communication guide medical operations in San Raffaele in Brazil.
Yet through Mgr Vella’s intercession some Maltese manage to benefit from San Raffaele’s benevolence. “Recently a 41-year-old Maltese vegetable hawker who came to San Raffaele in Milan was cured by none other by Prof Rigatti, the same person who operated Berlusconi and Craxi. He spent two months free of charge in San Raffaele. In Malta he was told that there was no cure available for his condition. If San Raffaele was in Malta everyone would have benefited from this.”
Another project, which has not seen the light of the day, has been his proposal of a Church TV station. “If the two main political parties can do it, so can we,” insists Dun Charles Vella. Dismissing arguments by those who like present head of the PBS editorial board Fr Joe Borg who insist that such a venture would be too expensive for the church, Mgr Vella insists that it would suffice to make an internal church tax on the expenditure on feasts to set the project rolling.
He attributes the Church reluctance to embark on this project to a fear of money. “In San Raffaele our motto is that everything is possible for those who believe. If I am given the go-ahead I will surely find money from Malta and abroad to get things rolling.”
Bishop Nikol Cauchi has gone on record stating that the time will come for the church to have its own station but Dun Charles insists that the present bishops should seize the moment and not wait for their successors to commence this project.
But despite these two big disappointments, one of Mgr Vella’s youthful dreams, the Cana Movement, has withstood the test of time and has grown in to a national institution even if many consider the Cana course as a sort of formal requirement to get the licence to marry in church. Mgr Vella admits this might be true in some cases but he insists that marriage, like priestly ordination requires preparation by professional people.
“But the seeds we sow do not always fall on fertile ground but when they do they blossom,” says Dun Charles.
But back in the 50s Dun Charles’ enthusiasm on starting marriage preparation courses was not shared by everybody. The emerging Cana Movement aroused the suspicions of more conservative priests concerned that Cana meetings would provide couples with the opportunity of meeting beyond the gaze of their families and chaperones.
Mgr Vella recalls that during a sermon a priest from Zebbug declared that he would not allow the Cana Movement to set foot in his parish. “He warned that couples would use Cana meetings as an excuse to meet and share an ice cream.” Dun Charles recalls that this priest was interrupted by a smart woman who asked him “what’s wrong with a couple sharing an ice cream?”
Fortunately for Dun Charles Archbishop Gonzi was more open to new ideas than these priests and the Cana Movement was given the Curia’s blessing.
Family planning was another issue, which pitted Dun Charles against conservative elements. But once again the receptive Archbishop Gonzi came to his rescue. Mgr Vella’s novel contribution was the setting up of counselling centres advising couples on natural family planning methods.
This was quite shocking in the 1950s and 1960s when the church used to put a great emphasis on the importance on couples begetting children. Mgr Vella recalls that his conscience was troubled seeing thousands of people, accompanied by hordes of children leaving Malta in order to emigrate to Australia because they were too poor.
“I used to ask myself whether the church should keep harping on couples having large families.”
Dun Charles agreed with the Church that begetting children is a fundamental aspect of married life but he pointed out that it was not the Church’s concern to determine the number of children a family should have.
He recalls that the sponsors of the family planning centres, the Lions Club, were so concerned that they went to Archbishop Gonzi to check whether family planning was authorised by the Church. Fortunately for Mgr Vella, Gonzi once again gave his blessing to his controversial initiative and nine other counselling centres were opened.
Yet while the church has accepted natural family planning methods it is still adamantly against artificial contraception. Mgr Vella insists that one has to take in consideration the particular situation of each particular couple before making generic statements on the issue.
“A priest has the duty to inform couples on the church doctrine on this matter but ultimately this is a personal choice.”
According to Mgr Vella, married couples using contraceptives still have a place in the church and that through the sacrament of confession. They can always reconcile themselves with the church.
One of the challenges facing the church is the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in African countries. In these countries the use of contraceptives is recommended by international organisations to combat the spread of AIDS.
Mgr Vella who has also served in a number of African countries is troubled by deaths of millions in Africa. He does not exclude a change of heart by the church on this issue but he does not consider himself as the best judge on this issue.
“The best judges of the situation are African Bishops. This issue will be soon discussed in a synod for African bishops which will be attended by the Pope himself in October.”
Another contentious moral issue on which Mgr Vella has more conservative views is divorce. “Divorce is one of the greatest plagues which lacerates contemporary society because it divides families and hurts children”, insists Mgr Vella.
But Malta remains the only country in the world apart from the Philippines, which has not introduced divorce. Is this a case where the Maltese know it better than everyone else is in the world? Vella insists that the family is Malta’s greatest and richest resource and rather than introducing divorce we should combat the causes of marriage break up which include material greed, expensive weddings, expensive properties and other social problems.
But in his experience as a councillor he acknowledges meeting couples whose marriage fails beyond hope of reconciliation. While describing those who remain celibate after a marriage failure as “heroic” he understands those who find a partner with whom they spend the rest of their life.”
He goes on to say that Maltese society is a pluralistic one. “I do not hold a dualistic vision of society composed of goodies and baddies, cowboys and Indians.” But while comprehending this state of affairs, Mgr Vella would not institutionalise this social reality by giving these couples the chance to marry again.
While in Malta Mgr Charles Vella’s name is synonymous with Cana, in Milan and Italy it is synonymous with San Raffaele Hospital which he joined in 1986 in the role of general co-ordinator for ethics. Even in the field of ethics Mgr Charles Vella adopts a very practical stand bridging Catholic orthodoxy with modern science. In so doing he makes a distinction between church doctrine and ethical rules. While recognising that assisted pro-creation or the Church does not allow IVF he disagrees with Children Commissioner Sonia Camilleri’s position for its prohibition. He insists that IVF should be regulated to prevent any wastage of embryos.
He even boasts of making arrangements for fifty Maltese couples to start fertility treatment in San Raffaele. Dun Charles claims that 25 per cent of these couples became parents and in most cases this service was offered free of charge.
In Italy Father Charles has also formed part of a number of bio-ethical committees. For 15 years he worked alongside professed agnostics like the former Italian Minister Umberto Veronese in the ethical committee of the Istituto Europea di Oncologia.”
“I participate these meetings with humility and a Franciscan spirit. I never try to impose my views. I had a very healthy debate on RAI 3 with my friend Umberto Veronese on the issue of euthanasia. I disagreed with his position in favour of euthanasia but we still respect each other’s views.”
He also insists that the Church should not pretend to have all the answers to the questions posed by the ongoing developments in science.