Last Tuesday, the Catholic Church in Malta celebrated the feast of St. Paul’s shipwreck in Malta. What few realize is that it only became a national feast day in the nineteenth century. It was a collective answer to British imperialism. While the Anglican Church prided itself to be with St. Paul, clearly inspired by the importance that St Paul’s work assumed after the Reformation, the local church responded with aneven more spectacular attack, by making the celebration of St. Paul’s shipwreck a day of obligation for all Catholics to attend mass. The Anglicans could not boast of such an exceptional privilege.
Gone are the days when the local Catholic Church could claim a position of power and political superiority. On the contrary, at present, it is in a state of stasis. The institution is without a bishop. The procrastinated and prolonged process in the choice of a local bishop is only heightening the failure of the Church to act quickly.
More than ever before, the only chance for survival of the Maltese Church lies in the capacity to reinvent herself. This is why the appointment of the new bishop has become extremely important. Without doubt there are a number of candidates who could fill this post. Perhaps, the dilemma of the Catholic Church lies here.
The new bishop cannot rely on continuity but will need to refresh Catholicism in Malta. At least, certain stands taken by the Apostolic Administrator, bishop Scicluna, as was the case of his position on hunting, are showing such an ability.Scicluna realized that the Church in Malta (as elsewhere) is now more accountable to public opinion than before.
The authority of the bishop in Maltawas the first to fall from its high horse. I am sure that the moral authority of politicians will soon follow. What the general public wants are leaders that appearto be normal and notsemi-divine gods.
Saint Augustine spoke about the qualities needed for a good leader. He had bishops in mind but what he said counts for any other leader. For him, the perfect bishop had to be a “magister”, a “custos” and a “pastor”. With these three Latin words, Augustine understood that a bishop had to be a teacher. This is what “magister” means in Latin. He had to be a guardian and defender of the church. This is the meaning of “custos”. Finally he had to show zeal and devotion towards his flock. This is the meaning of “pastor”. The person who has these three elements will prove to be a good leader. These three characteristics are achievedthrough diligence, sobriety and hard work. A good leader today, whether secular or religious, is condemned to face the brutal pragmatism of our contemporary world.
But a bishop cannot ignore public opinion:he can only ignore it at his own peril. Despite all discourse that the Church has lost its central role, the new bishopwill be hounded by journalistsand the rest of society.
Pope Francis understands well the importance of image and the art of putting on a good show. It would be a great mistake if the bishop thinks that he can regain prestige and power by exhibiting himself in flamboyant vestments. Luxurious and flashy dress will not help him. Francis is helping the Church toovercome the current crisis. He realizes that the use of such type of vestmentsmade his predecessor appear poised and exuberant.
The success of the local Church lies in its capacity to redraft her social programme. As an institution, it should start to appear anti-autocratic and not as an extension of some form of a political power. The situation in Malta is not much different from the rest of the world. The practice of the faith is today seen by many as a matter of convenience. Instead it is the duty of the Church to make it a matter of commitment.
The local Church needs to realize that for our contemporary society, religion is about questioning. The moment society stops asking questions, it stops being spiritual. It stops growing. This does not only hold for religion, but also for politics. Jacques Derrida called all this deconstruction. This is the trend today. We are dismounting what our ancestors built to try to reconstruct something new. But there is nothing new in all this. Was not this a Christian principle? Finally, this is the meaning of the Christian metaphor of the Phoenix out of the ashes.
The new bishop will be working in an age where doubt and shifting of beliefs are part and parcel of our daily reality. Today, people are no longer willing to follow blindly the beliefs of their ancestors. They are insisting on choosing their own beliefs as they are choosing their own political parties, based no longer on family allegiance but on political expediency. Modern man and woman need first to doubt but then he or she expect to be left on his or her own to decide whether to believe or not. This means that our religious identity is more fluid than it was in the past, where religion appeared as something solid and steadfast.
The problems with issues of faith startedin the NineteenthCentury. Catholicism started to be a faith practisedin a passive way. This was the erroneous response of the Catholic Church to Modernism. The faithful had to be passive. Power got more and more centralized in the Curia. This push continued in recent times and in part, this explains why religion is having a great revolution in Malta. Believers do not want to practisetheir faith in a passive way. Asit is the case with any organization, being religious or secular, people want to be active participants.
People do not want to be lectured - finally this is the role of sermons- but to contribute directly to their parish community. However, Catholicism today appears extremely centralized and as a result ephemeral and artificial. This was not the case in early modern times. People supported the Church not out of ignorance but as it was an institution that offered them full participation according to the philosophy of the times. The mistake that the Church is making today is that of misreading the reasons for past success, seeing it as an issue of ritual and tradition. Thus, there is pressure to try to resurrect old models. What is needed is a bishop that embraces Augustine’s of Hippo advice. He offered the keywords of success. Who possesses those three qualities can resurrect the spirit of the past or as the saying goes,putthe old wine, which is the Christian tradition, in the new bottles of modernity.