The Church believes the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the world to its knees, is a “sign” and served as a challenge to transform the way it operates. 

In a document outlining a four-year plan, revised in recent weeks to address issues brought about by the novel virus, the Church in Malta highlights eight stages it plans to work through by 2024. 

“One Church, One Journey offers a vision of becoming ‘church’ rooted in that promoted by Pope Francis, in particular in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium. 

“Its presentation of a process of renewal is a local interpretation of the Pope’s own desire for renewal for the universal Church. The document also indicates the specific processes that the Archdiocese is committing itself to start and implement in these next four years,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna said during the document launch on Sunday. 

Scicluna urged all the Church’s entities - parishes, religious congregations, schools, lay movements, families and all others – to read the document, available online, and to reflect on its contents. 

What will the Church be doing in the next four years?

Throughout 2020, the focus will be on the “foundations” on which the Church is built. It will be highlighting the importance of “meeting Christ” and the spread of the Church’s teachings through evangelisation.

In 2021, the church will shift its attention to becoming “a Church that listens” by focusing on God’s word, on what others have to say and on the island’s social realities. 

By the following year the Church will strive to become more welcoming and, in the process, also embark on reconciliation.

Throughout 2023, the focus will be on providing support for the formation of Christianity – from when a person is baptised to the moment of one’s death. 

In the final year, the Church will emerge as a guiding light. In the same year, the 2024 Diocesan Assembly will be held which will serve as the first step towards a process of change in order to “adapt to the times”. 

Society’s 'wounds'

In a section of the document dedicated to “the people’s hurt”, the Church highlights struggles the Maltese have faced in reason years and which have had a lasting impact on their lives. 

“Every society is profoundly wounded and ours is no exception. We would be foolish to think our society is flourishing just by looking at the economic and social factors while ignoring other indicators prosperity.

“Contradictions and inconsistencies are even more dangerous, especially when we accept them as normal or when we claim to be in favour of life and social inclusion or freedom of expression and democracy and the facts say otherwise,” the Church document reads. 

The murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and migrant Lassana Cisse, tax evasion, bribery and omertà or the ‘friends of friends’ mentality all expose a gap between the realities and Catholic spirit, the Church noted. 

The “destruction of our land for economic gain” is another wound society had to deal with, it said. 

The Chruch's document can be accessed here.

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