The news that Pope Francis is coming to Malta is most welcome. What should we expect from this visit of the first Latin American pope who has challenged the world and Christianity alike in no ordinary way?
Before counting on great expectations, one needs to ponder deeply both on the baggage Francis carries and on the real, not imagined or desired, state of our country.
Pope Francis is the pope of Fratelli tutti, where the major concern is what nourishes social cohesion in a cosmopolitan world. He is also the pope of Laudato Si’, focussing on the integral ecology needed to safeguard the planet from the greed and self-serving economic interests that are driving us towards a bleak future.
Francis is also the pope who remarkably and consistently these last eight years has been a wake-up call for a comatose Christianity wherever it settles down for old traditions and loses connection with people’s hearts.
Malta is going through one of its dark patches. We may be reverent towards the pope as a people, but it is his message we need to listen to with reverence.
The major divide that debilitates the country and the nation is not the political one, though we are still a very divided and polarised people.
Worse than this is the divide at the core of our identity. We have exited the culture of values that shaped us as a nation and we seem to be lost where it comes to values that should guarantee a legacy for the emerging generations.
We may be reverent towards the pope as a people, but it is his message we need to listen to with reverence.
Undoubtedly, the pope will be apprised on the state of the country and will be expected to address the real issues that make us so restless as a people. Despite the still strong presence of the Church, its impact in the public sphere is on the wane and its public image increasingly out of sync with one generation after another.
The Maltese seem to put more effort into saving past traditions than in fostering values with which millennials can relate.
In this context, those charged with the preparation of this visit need to steer away from triumphalist tones and from creating a false facade of who we really are.
Malta has among the highest percentage of church attendance in Europe. It is also a country where corruption thrives, tax evasion is rampant, hate speech and racism the order of the day, and greed and where egoism top the list of the values that drive us.
There are many people of good will and high standing in this country. Most have become more prosperous, pluralistic, tolerant and sensitive to the suffering of the marginalised, of those in need and of minorities. But very few inspire what is shaping our nation.
We still lack a true sense of the state, we still need to grow up as a democracy, we still lack true awareness of the rights and obligations of the individual. Politics, as practised, is failing the country on various counts, with justice and truth the prime victims.
Pope Francis will be here for hardly 48 hours and we cannot expect miracles. Many quarters will have different expectations from this visit and will do their utmost to gain points from it. We should beware of anyone intent on hijacking or exploiting the visit.
May Pope Francis live up to his good name and be bold with us all, in the hope that one day we may really start to pick up the pieces.