‘Muscat shouldn’t have put on an act in a kitchen’ - Archbishop

Archbishop Charles Scicluna put his two cents worth into the controversy surrounding the Prime Minister’s New Year’s video message, insisting that Joseph Muscat “should not have to put on an act”.

“The next time he visits people in their kitchen, I hope it will be for real,” Scicluna said on Monday night’s edition of Reporter when asked for his opinion on Muscat. The much-maligned video featured Muscat visiting the kitchen of a young couple, who claim to have benefitted from the Labour government’s tax-exemption scheme for first-time home buyers. However, it was later revealed that the young man is actually the son of the owner of renowned furniture company Construct Furniture, and that he had purchased his house with his wife back in 2008.

“There is simply no need for the Prime Minister to put on an act,” Scicluna said.

On an upside note, he said that he admires Muscat’s ability to address the public and that he is willing to work in tandem with his government in “a spirit of collaboration and loyalty”.

When asked about Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s public attempts to distance his party from the Church, Scicluna said that the PN leader is simply adapting to the current political climate.

“He must adapt his policies according to the context of the world we live in, just as I have to lead the Church in the same context,” he said. “However, the PN can maintain a credible voice without getting rid of its cultural patrimony.”

Church ‘relegated to the second division’

Scicluna admitted that the Church has lost the political power it had once held in abundance, and warned against nostalgic yearnings for its institutional past.

“If there was one thing I learnt during my 17 years working in the Vatican, it’s that I live in a world in which the Church has been relegated to the second division and that this isn’t the end of the world,” he said. “In the secular and pluralistic world we live in, the Church cannot call all the shots, and its voice is just one amongst many.

“It’s the reality we live in and I have no intention of fighting it. My challenge is to ensure that Jesus’s teachings are relevant – not rendered attractive by the Church’s authority but because of their content as testimony to God.”

When asked by host Saviour Balzan whether he considers the rapid legislation of un-Catholic practices as a failure of the Church, the Archbishop replied in the negative.

“Even if the state ends up legislating everything that is anti-Christian and anti-Catholic, my task will be to examine my own conscience and ask myself whether I did my duty or not,” he said. “I won’t tear my hair out if the state doesn’t legislate according to the Church’s teachings – that would just be wasted energy and nostalgia to when the church used to impose its will on the state.”

When questioned about Catholics turning to atheism in their droves, Scicluna harkened back to the gospels, where Jesus had said that “sheep will get lost along the way”.

“It worries me when people lose faith in God due to shortcomings from the Church’s part,” he admitted. “Ultimately, what is most important is for people to meet Jesus Christ. I recently met people who had been scandalized and angry with the institutionalised church, but who discovered Jesus while on a pilgrimage. Once people find Jesus and experience true faith as protagonists, they usually realize that they fundamentally need the Church and look at it in a new light.”

‘Angelik Caruana a gross caricature of faith’

The Curia last week decreed that self-styled mystic Angelik Caruana’s alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Borg in-Nadur are not divine in origin.

“As Archbishop, it is my duty to protect my people from gross caricatures of faith,” he said, while encouraging people to showcase their devotion to the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist through the official Church channels.

“The Church is clear in that followers aren’t obliged to believe in private apparitions, even those that are proved legitimate.”

‘Clergy paedophilia not linked to celibacy’

Scicluna vehemently denied that the phenomenon of paedophilia amongst Catholic priests is any way linked to their vows of chastity.

“Statistics show us that 60% of child abusers are family members,” he said. “Celibacy can lead to [sexual] frustration, but the rate of child abuse amongst celibate clerics is identical to that amongst married ones.

“Indeed, the culture of celibacy exists to train priests to respect certain boundaries.”

Calling on victims of clerical sex abuse to speak up, he insisted that the Church has the “necessary structures to respond adequately and immediately” to such cases.

‘Muslims should be allowed to pray in Msida’

The Archbishop defended the Maltese Muslim community, who have in recent days been criticised for organising outdoor prayer sessions outside the Msida parish church.

“I recently received an e-mail of complaint about those prayer sessions, and my response was that Malta guarantees freedom of religion, a blessing that Catholics should share with all other religions.

“Malta’s Islamic community is increasing, and I hope that we can live side by side, respecting each other and respecting the democratic principles enshrined in the Constitution.”