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	Were Catholics and Renegade Priests to Blame? By Martin Scicluna Malta Independent September 21, 2011 http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=132370 I had hoped not to return to the subject of the Maltese Church. But two quite extraordinary articles by Monsignor Dr Anton Gauci and Dr Klaus Vella Bardon, blaming Catholics and "renegade priests" for what happened in the divorce referendum, cause me to respond. Vella Bardon, in an article in The Times ('Reforming the Church in Malta'), begins inauspiciously by referring to what he terms "the unhappy case of sex abuse." "Unhappy"? Is that the only word he can find to describe the rape and violent sexual abuse committed by a number of priests over several years? He then goes on to say that this "unhappy case" and the recent divorce campaign have "given the opportunity for anti-Catholics, pseudo-Catholics and Philistines to vent their spleen against the Church". He clearly places me in this bracket for having written an article which recommended a number of steps which the Maltese Church could take to ensure its renaissance after the set-backs of the failed divorce campaign and the sex abuse scandal. For making such proposals – which were put forward in a genuine and constructive manner to help recover the standing of the Archbishop and his Church from the nadir reached during the divorce referendum - he accuses me of being a sheep in wolf's clothing. But not content with this, Vella Bardon, flailing about for people to blame so long as it is anybody but the hierarchy of the Church itself and its ill-judged involvement in a political issue in which it should have been more circumspect, then magnifies his error by stating: "The greatest failing of the Church was in its own ranks. The Church does not consist of just the hierarchy and the Curia….The Church includes all its members and they have been found wanting. The Archbishop has been let down by the flock that is largely indolent, indifferent, uninformed and unprepared to stand up and be counted with too many placing partisan and narrow self-interest above any other consideration. This was further compounded by the constant sniping at the Church authorities by renegade priests…." So there we have it. The verdict according to Vella Bardon: it was not the Church's leaders that lost the divorce campaign, or took years to deal with horrific cases of sex abuse, but "the flock" itself and "renegade priests" that failed to rise to the occasion. Rather like Hitler, who blamed the German people, not himself, for losing the Second World War, we can rarely have had a more perverse verdict. A similar line was followed by Monsignor Dr Anton Gauci in an article in The Times entitled "The Church Has 'Gone' Long Ago!" Expressed in fractured language, he said: "Nor is it seldom they take as beacons of light one or two local ecclesiastics who are well known for their facility of pontificating in order to 'modernise' the local Church, writers perhaps also paid for their contributions….I hesitate not to manifest fear that one cannot exclude doubts as to their loyalty to such official teachings of the Church that involves dogma. A clear example sustaining this fear of mine would be some pronouncements by so-called 'theologians' on the occasion of the recent campaign of the divorce referendum… I am one of those that are inclined to preach that the lack of eye-opening on the part of the Church in Malta was very much instrumental in our suffering the defeat blow." Ah! more "renegade priests", then. Monsignor Gauci goes on to tell us that he "even ventured to write to the Cardinal Secretary of State suggesting that the Holy See help the Maltese Church by guidelines. But apparently, my efforts have miserably failed!" But he goes on: "in the event of such failures, the good God looks not at the outcome of our efforts but at the efforts themselves! And that is a real consolation!" So there we have it. In one bound the good Monsignor is free. We have it from the horse's mouth. He did his best. It was the Church that failed him. Were this line of thinking not so pathetic, it would be laughable. The thoughts expressed by this senior prelate in the Maltese Church and Dr Vella Bardon are indicative of the very mind-set which my earlier articles on the need for the Church to eschew self-pity and denial if the over-due process of its renaissance is to begin after the debacle of the divorce referendum campaign. Vella Bardon accuses me of gloating over the debacle. I did no such thing, but simply described the consequences for an institution I hold dear of its own misplaced actions. He also feels I was "arrogant" to propose a road-map for the Church's renaissance. If he is so blinded in his analysis as to blame the Church itself, "renegade priests" and its flock for what happened, what hope is there for the poor besieged Archbishop if he cannot be told objectively what went wrong and how he might fix it? To shoot the messenger and ignore the message itself is typical of deluded zealots through the ages. The suggestions I have made have been consistent. First, ensure that the separation of Church and State in Malta is more clearly delineated. Second, draw up a fresh concordat with the political parties formalising the Church's commitment not to interfere in matters affecting the State. Third, bring justice and closure to the long-standing victims of clerical child sex-abuse in Malta. Fourth, pay the victims of that abuse adequate financial compensation for the pain and injury sustained by them at the hands of the Church as has been done elsewhere. Fifth, carry out a root and branch review of the way the Curia operates; remove those (elderly) Monsignors who were responsible for giving the Archbishop such dud advice both on the handling of the sex abuse scandal and the divorce referendum; and introduce younger priests into the top posts of the Curia. In parenthesis, Monsignor Dr Gauci's verdict on the divorce referendum, which was disloyal to the Archbishop, Monsignor Pullicino Said's decision to ban Debbie Schembri from practising in the Ecclesiastical Tribunal – a decision since rightly reversed - and Monsignor Gouder's position as Pro-Vicar General and chief architect of the Church's divorce campaign prompt me to ask what kind of promotion system operates in our Church. Is promotion based on merit, or who you know? Either way, the quality of performance displayed in recent events must call the whole promotion system into question and render it ripe for review. The Church needs good quality advisers and administrators at the top, and the Archbishop clearly does not have them at present. If Vella Bardon, and others bigots as blinkered as him, see a hidden agenda in my advice to the Archbishop they are of course welcome to that view. But if their approach prevails, we can only look forward to a continuing decline in the Church's mission in Malta. On the other hand, if my blunt advice is heeded in the spirit in which it is given, the Maltese Church might see the start of a new chapter in its relationship with its dispirited flock and a renaissance in its standing. Martin Scicluna is the Director General of Malta's only independent think-tank, The Today Public Policy Institute. He writes here in a personal capacity"
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