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Archbishop questioned by faithful on his radio
Karl Schembri
Archbishop Guzeppi Mercieca remained characteristically silent when faced with pertinent questions by his faithful on the church’s radio station RTK last Tuesday, demanding his justification for refusing to let certain priests celebrate the sacraments.
It was meant to be a programme about his latest pastoral letter about Lent, which for the first time he wrote separately from the Gozo bishop, but callers insisted on explanations for his decision, with one of them referring specifically to MaltaToday’s story of Fr Jesmond Balzan who was stopped by Mgr Mercieca and even banned from teaching in schools for no apparent reason.
Fr Balzan is a former rector at St Augustine’s college who left the Augustinian order with the Vatican’s permission, but he has ended up registering as unemployed after he was banned by Mgr Mercieca from teaching in schools and from celebrating sacraments for the last four years without providing him with a reason for the decision.
“He just told me I was not needed,” Fr Balzan told MaltaToday. “I know I’m not the only priest to be going through this, to be stopped by the Archbishop from practicing my vocation without being given any reason whatsoever. Parishioners keep asking what happened and I can’t even defend myself.”
One of the callers last Tuesday said she knew of at least two priests who could not say mass or do any pastoral work because Mgr Mercieca stopped them mysteriously.
“Wouldn’t it be better if, in the light of the vocations problem, you let them back to the fold instead of saying you don’t need them,” she asked.
Refraining from answering, Mgr Mercieca just said: “Nobody is unwanted, actually we respect all priests and we thank God for them.”
Another caller was specific about her question: “I’m very disappointed … we have a priest in Hal Qormi who also spoke to MaltaToday… why is he doing this to him? How does he (Mgr Mercieca) speak of forgiveness when he has no compassion?”
The programme presenter, Tonio Bonello, referred to the Curia’s statement given in the same MaltaToday report, which said that discussions between individual priests and the Archbishop are bound to remain secret, letting Mgr Mercieca change subject completely.
A spokesman for the Archbishop had denied that Mgr Mercieca had a policy of not informing priests about the reasons for stopping them from giving pastoral services.
“The Archbishop insists that this has never been the case,” his spokesman said.
Fr Balzan said: “I don’t accept that claim. The Archbishop never told me why he stopped me.”
Even the provincial of the Augustinian friars, Fr Lucjan Borg, told MaltaToday he was never informed by Mgr Mercieca why Fr Balzan was stopped from working as a priest.
“The only thing the Archbishop had told me was that it had nothing to do with Fr Jesmond’s moral integrity, something I never doubted about him,” Fr Borg said.
Mgr Mercieca’s policy of secrecy pitted him in the midst of controversies in various spheres. In the most glaring cases, this turned into the worst possible way of holding the Church’s issues under public scrutiny. Its way of dealing with cases of child abuse by priests remains a bone of contention, with the Curia’s own response team conducting investigations about crimes committed by the clergy without divulging any information to the police.
But in contrast with Fr Balzan’s case, where he faced no charges against him in front of the Curia’s response team, the Curia’s knowledge about a former Jesuit teacher’s abuse of students came to light after the priest was given marching orders from the diocese of Portsmouth, UK, upon revelations about his dubious past while in Malta. In contrast with the Maltese Curia, the British ecclesiastical authorities reported the case immediately to the police and made its decision public.
In another case, a priest was brought over from Canada as soon as Canadian police were about to arrest him for paedophilia. The Curia then posted him in a primary government school in Rabat as the children’s spiritual director, and continued with his abuses here for years without any action from the Curia.
Meanwhile, among fellow priests, Mgr Mercieca is facing increased resistance to his prolonged leadership of the Maltese church, which he has been heading since 1976.
Although he submitted his resignation three years ago in line with Canon Law which requires him to step down on his 75th birthday, the Vatican has still decided to keep the Gozitan monsignor on, to the frustration of many disgruntled priests and religious orders. Speculation is now rife that the new bishop for Gozo, Mgr Mario Grech, will eventually be appointed Archbishop in Malta – a prospect which is already making some of the clergy in disfavour with Mgr Mercieca wince.
Known among clergy intellectuals for his unenlightened speeches, Mgr Mercieca had public controversies with a handful of his priests during his long term, most notably with Fr Joe Borg, who was removed from Media Centre Chairman in 2002 in obscure circumstance, Fr Mark Montebello, who was repeatedly silenced by Mgr Mercieca, and Fr Colin Apap who came under the Archbishop’s attack for endorsing Joseph Muscat for the European Parliament elections.
Mgr Mercieca also repeatedly provoked women’s rage when he said that salaried jobs hinder a mother’s main mission of staying at home with children.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Link to: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/02/26/t7.html
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