Today’s missive from Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea-Curmi (summarised below), on the feast of Pentecost, is a timely one that is not lacking in courage. Against the background of the shocking murder of the migrant Lassana Cisse, which appears to have been racially motivated, the two bishops lay down some firm moral principles on the treatment of foreigners. But they know their words will not be embraced wholeheartedly by all churchgoers.
The killing of Cisse, while hopefully a one-off incident never to be repeated, did not take place in a vacuum. It was a grotesque symptom of the mentality of a sizeable section of society whose members, even if sometimes unwittingly, foster suspicion and hatred of foreigners instead of understanding and compassion. Many of these people happily attend Mass and profess the faith but are in denial of the core teachings of its founder Jesus Christ.
It is these teachings that Scicluna and Galea-Curmi underline today with their emphasis on Christian love and its inevitable corollaries in this context: inclusivity, the welcoming of diversity, respect for the rights of every person irrespective or race or colour, the treatment of all men and women, without exception, as members of one family. Valiantly, they attempt to counter the opposing currents – “rivalry, envy, a superiority complex, pride, arrogance, prejudices, hatred and fear” – that not only give rise to some aspects of religious practice but lie at the root of racism and xenophobia.
Today’s Malta is badly in need of such a message and others promoting tolerance and respect that the bishops deliver from pulpits around the island from time to time. It is therefore even more of a pity – and this is the main point of this editorial – that only a little more than a third of the population are present when these pastoral letters are read out at Sunday Mass.
For the last five decades the Church in Malta has been taking a Sunday Mass census. The last one, whose results were out earlier this year, showed that attendance has plummeted from 81.9 per cent of the Maltese population in 1967 to 36.1 per cent in 2017.
This trend is a delayed mirror of trends long prevalent abroad in mainstream Christian faiths. However, one would expect some radical pastoral action to have been set in motion locally to try to arrest the decline, which is distancing so many from the moral compass offered by the Church in this age of increasing materialism and individualism. If any concerted effort is being made by the diocese in this regard, if any vision is being promoted for a more forward-looking Church that fosters a more dynamic clergy and a more empowered laity, none has yet been announced.
Part of the problem must lie in the divisions within. It is a pity that both laity and members of the clergy sometimes point to Vatican II and its aftermath as the root of the present malaise in the Church. Some denigrate Pope Francis, in spite of his radical witness to the Gospel. Our bishops’ reflection on Amoris Laetitiae and the ministry to the LGBTI community is considered by these as quasi-heretical.
The riches of Vatican II are being lost in favour of ecclesiasticism and outdated paraphernalia of all sorts. How much richer would the Church be if it were seen no longer as the patron of outdated ‘religious’ customs but as responding to its true calling: to act a field hospital for those in need of spiritual healing and as a beacon for those in search of meaning?
Certain members of the Church ought to stop bemoaning an institutional model whose expiry date is past and instead start thinking and acting creatively around the radicalism of Christ’s message. This would offer hope, a sense of a more progressive Catholic Church, and authentic examples of mission moulded by the Gospel.
The Church, as part of its plan of action, needs to encourage men and women to come forward, both lay and ordained, in whom Jesus is alive. Those who would, like him, be unafraid of bucking tradition and conformity and of expressing their faith and worship in enthusiastic, innovative and appealing ways.
If the Church is to start winning souls over again, it needs shining models in the community capable of infusing it with the spirit of Christ’s life and teachings, of inspiring and drawing people towards his pure and simple messages of love for the Father and compassion for all his children.
That would in the long run surely be more effective in avoiding another Cisse, and embracing all those like him, than even the bishops’ powerful message of today.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial