Caesar never shied away from bragging! Such as at the Battle of Zela near the Black Sea in northeastern Turkey, where Caesar just wrote: Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came. I saw. I conquered.) as if the battle was a piece of cake.
Since then, this slogan has been used or adapted by different people in different contexts. In 2011, for example, US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, gave it a jingoistic twist when she reported the death of Muammar Gaddafi using the phrase “We came, we saw, he died.”
Peter Venkman, in the 1984 film Ghostbusters, gave it an irreverent twist, applauding the team’s efforts saying: “We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!”
A religious twist had been given in 1683 by Jan III of Poland, describing his victory in the Battle of Vienna by saying “We came, we saw and God conquered”, reminding his troops that this was a team effort (‘We’ not ‘I’) and thanks to God’s help.
The same slogan, albeit with modifications, can be reflected upon two months after Pope Francis visited Malta. Although the timing of the visit was inspired more by the individual ambitions of some, rather than by their pastoral zeal, Francis definitely came and saw. Following the youth gathering fiasco at St George’s Square, the Maltese gave him a commendable welcome. Our TV stations transmitted every moment and our political leaders made it a point to put on their best smiling face when seen with him.
But did he conquer or make a difference?
Has anyone felt the north wind?
The pope, unlike Caesar, does not impose himself on the people he visits. He invites for personal, social and structural conversion by preaching the love and mercy of God. The image in the Book of Revelations of Christ knocking on a door that can only be opened from the inside applies to the pope as well.
So, perhaps, instead of asking whether he conquered or brought any changes, one should ask whether we wanted to be changed. The question should be: Did we change the evil ways Francis spoke of?
In the Presidential Palace, Pope Francis told a beaming Prime Minister: “There is a need to shore up the foundations of life in society, which rests on law and legality. May your commitment to eliminate illegality and corruption be strong, like the north wind that sweeps the coasts of this country. May you always cultivate legality and transparency, which will enable the eradication of corruption and criminality.”
Two months down the line did you feel the north wind raging? The only difference is that, today, we have discovered that the rot is worse than what we ever thought it was.
Someone at the police force did not take action to push or the arrest of Ryan Schembri- Fr Joe Borg
The official mantra is that the country turned a page after the resignation of Joseph Muscat. GRECO – the Council of Europe committee against corruption – has just reported that the government has only fully implemented two out of the 23 concrete measures that had to be taken to fight corruption and strengthen the rule of law. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) noted, among other things, that the government gave “little visible response” to allegations of corruption.
The corruption page is a page that the north wind surely did not turn!
Horror stories from the courts
Worse still, horror stories have hit us from the courts. We had known that the police force had ‘mistakenly’ sent wrong information to the Dubai police when they inquired about 17 Black. Now we know that that was not a solitary mistake. Our police force left a person on police bail and with an international arrest warrant to move about, leave and enter Malta with the same ease that one leaves and enters one’s home.
Someone at the police force did not take action to push for the arrest of Ryan Schembri. He is facing justice in Malta thanks to the British police. A man harassing a woman in the Labour Party club in Floriana was let off the hook as he was accused on the basis of the wrong provision of the law. And another one caught red handed with one million worth of contraband cigarettes was freed as – you guessed it – the prosecution did not do its homework.
Besides warning us of corruption, Francis exhorted us to keep the environment “safe from rapacious greed, from avarice and from construction speculation, which compromises not only the landscape but the very future”.
A dusty south wind we had aplenty but a cleansing north one made no appearance in the last two months.
Malta is selectively full up
Regarding migrants, the pope urged us to abandon the narrative of “invasion”, stop looking at them as a threat or a virus and be more welcoming. But before and after the pope’s visit, cries of help from migrants on boats were refused with similar frequency. Malta is considered to be full up for black migrants but not so for blonde Ukrainians and passport buyers.
We were told that there is a law for the gods and one for us beasts. Now we know that there also is a law for the friends of the gods and a different, harsher one for us beasts. But, please, be positive about all this as we are reliably told that we have turned a page. Perhaps that’s true, after all, as it is clear that the page was turned backwards, not forward.
(P.S. The pope also had strong messages for the Church and the Catholic community. It would be shameful if they are not followed up. But that’s a topic for another commentary here or in some other place.)