Drift in the Church

The people of God in Malta should ponder thankfully on Fr René Camilleri’s reflections on the pitiful state of our diocese (‘Church at a crossroads’, October 2). And, of course, the leaders of the flock are not excluded. On the contrary, they should humbly reflect and digest his prophetic words, lest they mindlessly slip into that category of shepherds so forcefully denounced by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 34).

Is it possible that our bishops are blissfully unaware of our Church’s wanton drift? It was indeed a timely and wise declaration by the Curia administrative secretary that the Malta Church intends reducing its holdings in the APS Bank. It was a statement published not a moment too soon, especially in the wake of the final session of the Synod in Rome. Well done and thank you!

Camilleri stated that the drift away from Vatican II started in the suffocating pontificates of Pope Woytyla and Pope Ratzinger. I admired his biting comments on the uncompromising witch hunt led by Ratzinger at the behest of Woytyla against some of the best theologians. What still baffles me is the U-turn in Ratzinger’s post-Vatican II approach.

The drift in the Church started well before John-Paul II and Benedict XVI; it started hesitatingly during the pontificate of Paul VI. As a former long-serving Curial Sostituto in the secretariat of state, he was very conscious of the full implications of the revolutionary concepts espoused and promulgated in the momentous dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium. What may have possibly irked him was the notion on collegiality and, by extension, its effects on Pio Nono’s Pastor Aeternus on papal jurisdiction and infallibility of Vatican I, in July 1870...

The background to the sad pontificate of Pope Montini is a long story. And I fully understand and sympathise with his hesitant and tentative decisions. At the end of the day, he had either to implicitly acknowledge that the Church ‒ and past Councils ‒ may have possibly erred or, spurred on by the conservative minority comprising the curial cardinals Ottaviani, Siri, Ruffini, Pizzardo and their ilk, including the then archbishop of Cracow, Woytyla, bury his head in the sand and agonisingly dither in his reading the signs of the times. His moment of truth came in 1968, with his ill-fated Humanae Vitae. In Manzoni’s words,“... Ai posteri l’ardua sentenza” (Ei fu).

Yves-Marie Congar OP’s My Journal of the Council, Liturgical Press, Minnesota, is most revealing. I shall only quote the following amusing diary entry for June 3, 1962: “At the beginning of the meeting, Cardinal Ottaviani said that, to speed the work up, the experts should not speak unless questioned. At my side, Rahner [the equally towering Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner SJ] was champing at the bit, and said to me, ‘What are we doing here...”. Rather tongue-in cheek.

I stop here. But not before expressing my thanks and congratulations to Camilleri for his insightful prophetic words.

Hallelujah!

Amabile Galea – Balzan

Passport inconvenience

The Maltese High Commission in London. Photo: Google Street View

A Maltese friend of mine, an octogenarian, lives abroad in the north of England and is unable to leave home due to old age. He wishes to visit Malta and has to apply for a new passport. To do that, he has been advised to go personally to the Maltese High Commission in London to apply for a new passport. Once this is done, he has to go back to London to collect it.

Obviously, he can do neither. Which means he is not only housebound but also stranded abroad. He cannot see his country, most probably, for the last time. His freedom of movement has been curtailed indefinitely.

I don’t believe this is fair.

A heartfelt plea on his behalf to the responsible ministry in Malta to redress the situation, at least on humanitarian grounds.

EMILY BARBARO-SANT – Mosta