We have all heard of stories of Maltese stranded abroad for a myriad of reasons. COVID-19 has deprived people for months and years from their loved ones. The recent images coming from Australia after some of the most restrictive lockdowns in the world were heart-warming: people embracing at airports, babies meeting their grandparents for the very first time, and siblings meeting after long absences. In spite of numbers rising again worldwide, the need to reconnect seems stronger than ever.
Maltese missionaries working in difficult hotspots around the world are one of the categories harshly hit by pandemic restrictions both where they work, and in their country of origin. Long touted as Malta’s best ambassadors, missionaries are not the only category to suffer the fallout of our own need to protect the Maltese population. Similar stories of diplomats, and other Maltese migrants caught out by inflexibility systems often make it to the news.
As a member of a missionary congregation, it comes naturally to me to spare a thought for missionaries working in places like India, Pakistan, The Philippines, Cuba, Peru, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya and other difficult countries in Latin America and Africa. Some of these countries are stuck on dark red amber lists. To complicate matters, most of the countries’ vaccine certificates remain unrecognised here. Either way, the odds are stacked against the simple need of these missionaries to connect with their homeland; truly a double jeopardy of factors conspiring against them.
In this time of reckoning, this possible opening is truly a measure of the charity we profess as Christians and as Maltese citizens
Many missionaries balk at spending €1,400 in a quarantine hotel at the start of their home leave. They know the value of money, and how generous the Maltese public has always been in supporting missionaries abroad. They are also as keenly aware of how much good they could do with this amount of money in the places where they minister.
For missionaries, this is also about values, not disdain. They are aware that most convents have ample space, sometimes whole empty wings, that could easily host quarantine facilities for members of their congregation. So most have chosen to wait for vaccine certificates to be recognised, for amber to turn to red, and for good sense to prevail.
Meanwhile, parents have died, siblings got sick, and the mental strain of COVID-19 added to the extra stressors faced by missionaries, such as diverse cultures, extreme weather conditions, violence, poverty and cultural differences, continue to take their toll. For some missionaries, their home leave, is not a holiday but a saving grace, a breathing space from the incessant demands of missionary service, and a time to reconnect with family.
So it is truly welcome news that there could be hope just around the corner for many priests, nuns, lay missionaries, and many other Maltese citizens serving the poorest of the poor. Hopefully in the next few weeks up to Christmas, they will be afforded the gift of returning home, for rest, recuperation and connecting with their loved ones.
In this time of reckoning, this possible opening is truly a measure of the charity we profess as Christians and as Maltese citizens.