Why Gozitans are scared of losing their homes to a 17th century fiefdom

What is the Giuspatronato of Sant Antonio dell Navarra?

Since 1675, large parts of Qala and, ostensibly Nadur, formed part of the Giuspatronato of Sant Antonio delli Navarra – a sort of foundation for the lands owned by the noblewoman Cosmana Cumbo Navarra.

The so-called ‘jus patronatus’ is a right of patronage in Roman Catholic canon law where a set of rights and obligations is conferred upon a patron in connection with a gift of land, or the ‘benefice’. This right of patronage is subject to ecclesiastical legislation and jurisdiction as well as civil laws relating to the ownership of property.

Since the 17th century, the foundation had to be administered by the male heirs of the Stagno Navarra family and importantly, by a ‘rector’ or cleric appointed by the Maltese Archbishop.

But this is where the Gozitan drama being witnessed today had its origins.

Things came to a head in 1989 with the death of the priest Francesco Saverio Bianco, the ‘rector’ of the benefice who administered the lands. With his death, Richard Stagno Navarra of St Julian’s came forward – claiming to be the rightful owner as laid down in the Cumbo Navarra lineage – demanding that the Archbishop appoint him as the ‘rector’ of the foundation.

Archbishop Joseph Mercieca denied the request, insisting that the role had to be fulfilled by a cleric, according to the foundation’s own strict rules.

Undeterred, Stagno Navarra ignored the archbishop’s decree, and in 1992 signed off a tract of land of 126,000sq.m, known as ‘tal-Vardati’ to the company Berracimp Properties and its shareholder Jimp Ltd, on a 150-year emphyteusis for just Lm500 a year.

Stagno Navarra and the court scandal

Berracimp at the time had three owners: the late Gozo businessman Joseph Vella, lawyer Carmelo Galea, who was then legal advisor to the Gozo bishop and is still active in the current lands saga, and then magistrate Dennis Montebello (now retired judge). Montebello is still a company shareholder.

The story first breaks in Alternattiva back in 1992

Carravan representatives Carmelo Galea and Dennis Montebello, and the Giuspatronato's new rector, Patrick Valentino

Stagno Navarra’s next step was to file a court case asking to be recognised as the holder of the Giuspatronato, which he did by filing the case in the Gozo courts – despite not living in Gozo. His lawyer was Carmelo Galea himself.

Indeed, those doors were flung wide open: within the space of just 24 hours, magistrate Carol Peralta obliged by recognising Stagno Navarra as the rector of the Giuspatronato.

The decision sparked controversy not least for its hastiness, because Peralta denied the archdiocese the right to be heard. Whether Peralta knew his decision was benefiting a colleague on the bench, is a moot point.

The archdiocese – under both bishops Mercieca and later Paul Cremona – challenged that decision, cognisant of the manoeuvres to outsmart the Church’s duty to administer the foundation.

Church victory and then, capitulation

The Church finally won the case on appeal in 2013, with the Chief Justice recognising the archbishop’s right to nominate the rector to administer the foundation.

At that point, the Church was the uncontested administrator of the foundation, a role which also meant it had to mount legal challenges against abusive rock-cutting taking place on the contested land. The land includes a quarry at the edge of the cliffs of Qala, which is run by Gatt Developments. The same company formed the Kalamarine consortium, which has attempted to convince the Labour administration to allow them to turn the quarry into a cruise liner terminal.

Yet just four years later after the court victory, the Church under archbishop Charles Scicluna would relent, and for a price, appointed a rector to the liking of both Berracimp’s owners as well as the Stagno Navarra family.

In an unexpected turn of events, Scicluna agreed to appoint as rector of the Abbazzia dell Navarra giuspatronato the lawyer Patrick Valentino. He is known as the lawyer who had represented the MSSP clerical sex abuse victims in negotiations with the Maltese Church for compensation; as it happens, at at the time time of writing he is also the partner of Dennis Montebello’s daughter, the magistrate Rachel Montebello.

Church-State delisting

Crucial in this saga is one important victory for the landowners, who claimed to be the rightful heirs of the Cosmana Navarra foundation.

As confirmed by MaltaToday, in 1992 the Church passed on the lands of the Abbazia into the so-called ‘Annex 8’, a list of Church lands that had to be registered in the name of the Maltese State under the terms of the agreement with the Holy See that same year. The laborious process of registration has been ongoing since then.

According to the Joint Office – the Lands Authority entity responsible for the registration of these lands – the Abbazia’s lands should have been excluded from the Annex 8, because it was a “property held by one of the ecclesiastical entities or property subject solely to a pious burthen.”

“When the Joint Office was carrying out its researches on the Abbazia Stagno Navarra, with a view of registering this estate at the Land Registry in the name of government, it transpired that the Abbazia was limitedly entrusted to administer the estate listed under its name,” a spokesperson said.

“The fact that the Abbazia had the administration and not the ownership of the immovable properties in question, rendered the latter properties… as not having formed part of the immovable estate transferred to the State under the 1991 Church-State Agreement.”

Archbishop Charles Scicluna: it was the Diocesan Finance Commission which agreed on the relinquishing of the giuspatronato to a lay person

€200,000 paves the way to land registrations

In an agreement reached in February 2017, Valentino now assumed the role of rector of the giuspatronato, which meant it now assumed the Church’s former role in pursuing its claims against Gatt Developments, to demand fees for rock-cutting that had gone beyond previously agreed limits. But also, to register all the lands falling under the giuspatronato under its name.

The Church deal was sealed for the price of €200,000, a sum which the Curia told MaltaToday was contracted by its Diocesan Finance Committee. “The release of the said land was an administrative decision taken by the Diocesan Finance Committee. Dr Valentino was nominated by the [Stagno Navarra] family and accepted by the DFC.”

Crucially, the €200,000 was paid not just by the Stagno Navarra heirs, who fronted €120,000. The other €80,000 was paid out by Carmelo Galea and Dennis Montebello – Jimp Ltd’s shareholders and owners of Berracimp.

It is probably also for that reason that in August 2017, the Stagno Navarras, Montebello and Galea formed the Carravan Company Ltd.

“The DFC was aware that Dr Galea and Dr Montebello had some form of interest in the land, but was not aware of specifics,” a Curia spokesperson said, when queried about the interested parties.

Carravan is owned by the Stagno Navarra family (Dei Conti Holdings, 60%), Carmelo Galea (20%), and Carrac (20%), whose main shareholders are Dennis Montebello’s daughters Rachel and Carol.

What did the ‘new’ Abbazzia do?

The €200,000 – paid by the Carravan business partners – are supposed to be used by the Church to fulfil pious acts in the name of Cosmana Navarra, as requested in the Abbazia foundational deed.

Carravan representatives Carmelo Galea and Dennis Montebello, and the Giuspatronato's new rector, Patrick Valentino

But since 2017, the Abbazia has been transferring lands inside the Qala development zone to Carravan – specifically a 23,000sq.m piece of land at Ghar Boffa in Qala, for the annual concession of €43,000. Another 28,000sq.m tract at Tas-Sajtun in Qala was also transferred on an annual concession of €35,000.

Concurrently, the Planning Authority has green-lit three applications at Ghar Boffa for a row of housing that will include 85 apartments over three storeys, and 78 garages, presented by business associates of Gozitan property entrepreneur Joe Portelli, known for the Mercury House high-rise.

The Abbazia’s rector, Peter Valentino, has previously refused to answer a series of detailed questions sent by MaltaToday, insisting that there was “absolutely no public interest as to [the Abbazia’s] dealings.”

He also said that the old rents were from the 18th century and had never been updated since. Freed of its impending registration in favour of the Maltese government, residents and farmers in Qala have now started receiving letters from the Abbazia, of hiked rents – one farmer claimed he has to pay 30 times the ‘qbiela’ on his four tumuli of land.

Quarry wars

A major bone of contention is playing out in court between the Abbazia and Gatt Developments, the company occupying one of the two quarries on the Qala coastline, the other being Roads Construction.

Gatt has occupied the quarry since the early 1980s, when he acquired the former company that worked the quarry. Originally, it was the cleric administering the Abbazia’s lands who granted the first company the emphyteusis on the land to cut rock.

Kalamarine’s proposed cruise liner terminal, at the site of a quarry whose land is being claimed by the Giuspatronato

In 2003, the Maltese Archdiocese, as the administrator of the Abbazia, unsuccessfully attempted to have Roads Construction Ltd evicted from the quarry, because it had failed to prove that the area – known as tal-Wardati – was indeed the property of the Abbazia. Indeed it was only because, the Court said, the cleric administering the land at the time, Fr Saverin Bianco, had “indicated the land with his finger on the map, without consulting any maps” to the Church’s land surveyor.

But when two architects were asked to interpret the borders of this land from a plan included in a contract from 1737, both agreed that the Church’s interpretation of the extent of the Abbazia’s lands had been incorrect. The court declared that the Church had failed to prove its possession of the lands acquired by Roads Construction.

Yet since the Church relinquished its administration of the Abbazia, the private landowners are now seeking the eviction of nearby quarry owner Roads Development.

One email from 2 July 2018, presented in court, indicates that the Abbazia wants Gatt to pay more for its rock-cutting, and has accused the company of having cut rock deeper than it was allowed by previous agreements. “Once we agree on the process [to establish how much Gatt has to pay for the rock-cutting] we will be able to discuss the territorial concession for reasons that go beyond simple rock-cutting.”

The suggestion points at Gatt’s intention to develop a cruise liner terminal, a project that was being handled by a delegate of the Prime Minister – Tony Borg – but which, so far, has not advanced on the government’s agenda. The Abbazia has refused to comment on whether it is interested in developing the quarry “beyond simple rock-cutting”.

The Abbazia is no longer accepting the annual €652 pittance from the emphyteutical grant, and is now seeking Gatt’s eviction. Both sides attempted a mediation, which mediation was carried out by Judge emeritus Philip Sciberras.