MALTA
Malta Independent
Every institution has its own politics, and the Maltese Church falls squarely in that state of fact. Last week, a former parish priest vented his frustration at being asked to resign his post because the Church was being held to ransom by some parishioners and feast organisers. All too often it takes an incident such as this to point out the elephant in the room. Fr Emanuel Camilleri, who was at Mgarr parish, blurted out that the Church was in a leadership crisis.
Initially, many were flummoxed, it was a bolt out of the blue. But when this newspaper tried to speak to the Curia to get a reaction the next day, we were told that there was no comment to be made. That same day, we were given a full length rebuttal by one of the parish committees that organise the feast there. We were told that the letter was given the ok by the Church.
Still, all seemed to peter out. But yesterday, Fr Camilleri’s beliefs were echoed word for word by the respected Fr Joe Borg in his column in The Times. Fr Borg also calls the issue the “elephant in the room”. He clearly states his doubts about whether the current leadership is up for the job. But before that, he tackles the issue of the Church being out of touch and getting its priorities wrong.
And this is where the main problem lies. Pope Francis has clearly rejuvenated the Catholic faith on a global level. You could also say that his actions – however small – have gone towards restoring people’s faith in humanity.
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