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James Debono
The Catholic Curia is considering transforming a small retreat next to the Carmelite Church in the rural town of Fawwara into a full-blown residential hermitage for a new male contemplative order, MaltaToday has learnt.
No decision has been taken yet and the viability of the new order is still being studied, the Archbishop’s spokesperson Charles Buttigieg said.
For the past 23 years the retreat, which belongs to the diocese, was used for contemplation by a group of like-minded priests ordained in 1979, which includes progressives like Fr Rene Camilleri and Fr George Dalli.
MaltaToday is informed that the decision to evict the progressive priests to make way for the hermitage has been shelved as an alternative place in Senglea has been found to house the embryonic order. In the meantime the 1979 generation of priests are still meeting in Fawwara.
Buttigieg said the Church has “a long-standing desire to see the establishment of a male contemplative community in Malta.”
A Maltese hermit from the Camaldonese community is currently in Malta to consider whether the time has arrived to see that this is possible. “Any further developments depend on the outcome of this exercise,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg would not comment on whether the Fawwara site was being considered by the Curia for the siting of the hermitage, insisting that any such decision be premature.
Over the past weeks there has been growing concern on the environmental implications of turning the small retreat into a hermitage. The current retreat can barely house ten people.
Rambler’s Association president Lino Bugeja expressed his concern that the expansion of the small chapel and adjoining quarters could disturb the idyllic tranquillity of the area. Il-Lunzjata, a site used for spiritual retreats, was further developed through an extension of the building and a widening of pathways. “The same mistake committed in the Lunzjata retreat in Rabat should not be repeated in Fawwara,” Bugeja warned.
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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