The bishop's last move

News • 21 January 2007

The bishop's last move

LastThursday, Mgr GUZEPPI MERCIECA celebrated the closing of 30 years atthe helm of the Maltese Church. Karl Schembri writes about what the78-year-old vicar is most likely to be remembered for

Askingfor forgiveness as his successor prepares to take over the pastor'scrosier, Monsignor Guzeppi Mercieca last Thursday marked his 30thanniversary mass, and the last one, as Archbishop of Malta.
Thepastor from Victoria, Gozo, ended his mission referring once again tothe proverbial subject of the family – an issue upon which he hasrepeatedly pitted himself against women and working mothers, includingFamily Minister Dolores Cristina, vexed by his fixed idea that salariedjobs hinder a mother's mission of staying at home with children.
Even the Church's own tribunal has much to answer about the way it hasbeen dealing with broken families within its courts under Mercieca'srule.
An internal curia report revealed by this newspaper in December 2005was highly critical about the Church tribunal's lengthy annulmentprocedures that were heightening broken families' pain and suffering.
The report did not mince its words: Church annulment cases take atleast three years to start being heard at the Church's tribunal. Thelengthy procedures that follow afterwards span over several years,creating untold hardship to Catholic couples wanting to start afresh.
Compiled by a task force set up by Mgr Mercieca himself, the report'srecommendations are still shelved, and the outgoing archbishop will nowfind himself as one of the tribunal's own judges. The same tribunalthat towards the end of 2004 had around 520 new pending cases, withonly around 100 cases archived every year.
The report also shed light on the Church's acknowledgement that its tribunal has lost the trust of the public.
"The tribunal's excessive backlog of pending ‘new' cases is generallyperceived negatively by the Maltese community," the task forcereported. "The Maltese community is/might be losing faith in thistribunal due to this excessive backlog of cases."
Besides lacking the leadership qualities to tackle hard neededadministrative changes within his curia's tribunal, Mgr Mercieca hasbeen conditioned all throughout his 30-year-mission by the partisanbipolarity that was at its highest in the years of his anointment assuccessor to Archbishop Mikiel Gonzi.
It was a veritable hot seat, the one he inherited in 1976, in themiddle of controversy with Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.Confrontation between the State and the Church continued under KarmenuMifsud Bonnici's premiership, culminating with the ensuing Churchschools dispute and the infamous ransacking of the Curia by pro-Labourdrydocks workers in 1982.
That legacy of those years kept conditioning Mgr Mercieca to a greatextent till the end. As leading theologian Fr Renè Camilleri – and nowa chosen confidante of the new Archbishop-elect Mgr Paul Cremona – onceaptly put it, Mgr Mercieca "tries not to offend anyone, but ends updispleasing everyone".
The highly polarised debate on Malta's entry into the European Unionwas a typical example of what seemed as his weak reticence in the faceof controversy, but still exposing himself to fire from all sides. Thepro-PN front criticised the bishops for refusing to take a stand infavour of EU enlargement and Malta's membership, unlike their fellowEuropean bishops; the pro-Labour side slammed Mgr Mercieca for allowinghis delegate on EU affairs to speak on the EU. Labour pundit anduniversity lecturer Mary Darmanin went as far as lambasting the bishopsfor saying the citizens were duty-bound to vote in the referendum,irrespective of whether they voted Yes or No. She said the bishops wereputting immoral pressure on the conscientious Labourites who felt theyhad to boycott the referendum, as instructed by their leader.
Even his attempts at reconciliation remained met with scepticism bymost. When he asked for an apology for the Church's wrongdoing in the60s in an interview on Super One Television in 1999, Labour LeaderAlfred Sant promptly replied on the Church's radio station, RTK, sayingthat he was not impressed.
"The manner and context in which he expressed those remarks does notchange anything," Dr Sant had said. "They were so conditional that theymay mean everything and may mean nothing."
With the advent of local council elections in 1992, Mgr Merciecaprovoked then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami's surprise when he saidthat political parties should remain out of local elections, agreeingwith Labour's official policy back then. The former prime minister wasclearly vexed by what he called the archbishop's lack of trust inpoliticians and moved on to nominate PN candidates.
In the last 30 years, the Curia has persisted in resorting to obscureways of maintaining its share of power in the face of threats to itsstatus as a leading institution.
The most notorious case remains the secret agreement the Nationalistgovernment reached with the Vatican regarding the Marriage Law. Theagreement was reached in 1993 after negotiations held behind closeddoors between then Foreign Affairs Minister Guido de Marco and theApostolic Nuncio in Malta, Pier Luigi Celata. Designed to set the roadfor the ensuing Marriage Act, the agreement gave civil powers to theEcclesiastic Tribunal, forbidding people who are refused an annulmentin the Church's court to file a case for annulment in the Civil Courts.This triggered the Opposition's and observers' outrage, calling on thegovernment to withdraw the agreement and be transparent in itsdealings. On his part, the Archbishop resorted to doctrine and insistedthere was no place in the Church for those who decided to go for civilmarriage only.
"Should doubt arise on the validity of their marriage, Catholics maynot in good conscience ask for a decision thereon from the civil courtsbut solely from the ecclesiastical tribunals," Mgr Mercieca haddeclared. "Catholics who decided to contract marriage only in the civilform, or to approach the civil courts for a declaration of nullity oftheir canonical marriage, would in practice be renouncing to fullcommunion with the Church, and as a result, would be excludingthemselves from the reception of the sacraments."
The Curia's policy of secrecy brought it in the midst of controversiesbeyond the political sphere. In the most glaring cases, this turnedinto the worst possible way holding the Church's issues under publicscrutiny. Its way of dealing with cases of child abuse by priestsremains a bone of contention, for example, with the Curia's ownresponse team conducting investigations about crimes committed by theclergy without divulging any information to the police.
Another case triggered by the Curia's policy of silence involved faithhealer Edward Spiteri, who was held to be misappropriating funds of hisprayer group and manipulating his followers' minds, according to aChristian Charismatic Renewal report. The Curia kept mum about thereport but banned the faith healer from holding healing sessions in itschurches. In the meantime the faith healer conducted his sessions inpublic squares and on television. Reports about the Curia's reasonsbehind its ban made it to the press, stirring outrage at Net TV whichhad just taken him on as telepreacher. The faith healer himself hadsaid he had an agreement with the Curia to keep the whole issue underwraps.
Also under Mgr Mercieca, Fr Joe Borg was removed from chairman of MediaCentre in 2000 in obscure circumstances which neither Borg nor Merciecaever clarified.
Among fellow priests, Mgr Mercieca was facing increased resistance tohis prolonged leadership of the Maltese church. Although he submittedhis resignation more than three years ago in line with Canon Law whichrequired him to step down on his 75th birthday, the Vatican kept theGozitan monsignor on, to the frustration of many disgruntled priestsand religious orders who found him intellectually lacking.
He now leaves the curia to a Dominican friar just in the wake of someof the most telling statistics to ever face the Maltese Church. Only52.6 per cent of the Maltese are attending Sunday mass – 10 per centless than a decade ago. It will take more than a humble friar from theorder of preachers to win back again its multitudes of lost sheep in2007 Malta.