A dispute over a proposed new altarpiece in Kirkop church has taken an acrimonious turn, with one band club accusing another of spreading misinformation and “causing turmoil”. 

Soċjetà Mużikali San Ġużepp Ħal Kirkop said members of Għaqda Mużikali San Leonardu had been telling “lies” about plans to commission a new altarpiece for the village church, in a “desperate attempt” to stop the project from coming to fruition. 

“If Għaqda Mużikali San Leonardu wants to educate the public, it should first lead by example and admit the truth,” its rival club said in a statement issued on Saturday. 

One of the paintings moved from the parish church to a filial church over the years.

The dispute centres on Confraternity of St Joseph plans to commission a new altarpiece for the village church by artist Manuel Farrugia. 

On Friday, Għaqda Mużikali San Leonardu said that the decision meant the existing altarpiece – an 18th century depiction of the Pieta’ scene by artist Francesco Zahra – would be placed in a separate filial church and risk being forgotten. The Kirkop community, it claimed, had been left aghast by the decision.

Those claims were dismissed outright by Soċjetà Mużikali San Ġużepp Ħal Kirkop, which listed four bones of contention. 

The Kirkop parish priest’s announcement of the new altarpiece had been met by enthusiastic applause, the band club said, giving the lie to talk of the community having been dismayed by the decision. 

The filial church where the Zahra painting would hang was not at all neglected, was open daily to the public and was “considered as the parish museum”, with all sacred pieces removed from the parish church over the years having ended up there. 

“Importantly, contrary to what has been stated in the article, there is enough space to accommodate and conserve the painting of The Sorrowful Mother,” the band club added. 

The decision to focus the altarpiece on St Joseph rather than Our Lady of Sorrows was borne out by an 1886 Papal decree, they added. The altar featured the embled of the Confraternity of St Joseph in marble since 1923 and a 1938 will had also expressd the wish to commission a painting of St Joseph for the altar. 

Soċjetà Mużikali San Ġużepp Ħal Kirkop also disputed claims that Kirkop’s former parish priest Rev. Ġużepp Barbara had not changed the altarpiece despite pressure to do so. The altarpiece had not been changed back then, the band club said, because Rev. Barbara and some Confraternity members disagreed over which Biblical scene the new altarpiece should depict. 

It added that Għaqda Mużikali San Leonardu had remained silent when the church’s Crucifixion painting and altar dedicated to St Mary had been removed, decades ago, “to make space for the construction of an over-proportioned niche for the Parish statue, thus fulfilling their bullish ego”. 

Another example provided by the Soċjetà Mużikali San Ġużepp Ħal Kirkop.

“These paintings, which include works by Lazzaro Pisani, were also removed from the church and preserved in the same filial church mentioned in the article,”   Soċjetà Mużikali San Ġużepp Ħal Kirkop said. 

Suggestions that the procession with the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was at risk or that the statue was for sale were all false, it added, and the Confraternity’s application to replace the altarpiece had been done according to the rules. 

“Soċjetà Mużikali San Ġużepp Ħal Kirkop sadly points out that the hypocrite attitude shown by the other band club is tampering the cordial relationship built between the two band clubs throughout these years,” it said.