For the past 50 years, Mount St Joseph Retreat House on the outskirts of Mosta has served as a haven for meditation and contemplation for thousands of people every year.
But the sense of peace and quiet that the home provides is now under threat, in the light of plans to build what would be Malta's largest shooting range complex right next door to it.
The proposed project is one of four that are set to make use of dilapidated government-owned property - restoring it in the process - following a call for expressions of interest by the government. It will make use of a former anti-aircraft battery in Il-Busbesija, Mosta, built to defend nearby Ta' Qali airfield; the other three sites are the Isolation Hospital in Mtarfa, Marfa Palace and what is known as Strickland's Palace on the outskirts of Mġarr.
The preferred bidders for each site were announced by Parliamentary Secretary for Lands Michael Falzon, and the Il-Busbesija site is set to be leased to U-Group, who plan to develop a shooting range through its subsidiary U-Shoot.
But plans seen by this newspaper confirm that the project extends far beyond the confines of the British-era barracks. In fact, an artist's impression indicates that the barracks cover less than a tenth of the area that is being devoted to the project, which is set to include a 300m range adjacent to the barracks, a 25m range, a 50m range, an indoor range, a dynamic range, trap and skeet ranges, an artillery battery and a paintball park.
The grounds occupied by the proposed range actually border those of the retreat house, though it is unclear whether the entire land forms part of the proposed government lease or whether the company is planning to acquire - or has already acquired - the surrounding land, which includes a number of cultivated fields.
The area just next to the retreat house will not be built on, according to the artist's impression, but at its closest point, one of the shooting ranges will extend to around 100m from the retreat house's own grounds.
In any case, since many of the facilities are located outdoors, it is clear that activity in the shooting range will create loud background noise at the retreat house, which has been promoted as a place for quiet contemplation for the past few decades.
Rumours that a shooting range was being planned around the former anti-aircraft battery had reached the home, run by the Jesuits, but their fears were only confirmed when U-Group was announced as the preferred bidder for the site.
The land occupied by the shooting range (yellow outline as based on the plans) is directly adjacent to that occupied by the retreat house (white outline), with facilities reaching to within 100m of the property.
'A place of restful silence'
The retreat house at Tarġa Gap on the outskirts of Mosta, was built by Malta's Jesuit Province in the early 1960s. The modernist structure, which was designed by architect Carmelo Falzon, is scheduled as a Grade 2 building.
It can accommodate up to 78 people in twin-bedded rooms, and its facilities include three conference rooms, chapels and prayer rooms.
The property is set in 14 tumoli of land and is surrounded by countryside. Its grounds include spacious gardens replete with walkways and benches in its efforts to provide an ideal place for reflection and/or meditation.
It serves as a venue for many retreats, seminars and events organised by the Jesuits' Centre for Ignatian Spirituality, but it is also available for other uses, even for secular purposes. Just this month, for instance, it was used by a group of scouts who set up camp in the grounds and spent a week carrying out scouting activities.
The retreat house is also the permanent home of seven Jesuit priests.
Its own website describes it as "a place of restful silence for those seeking to pause the fast pace of modern life and enter to a haven of peace and quiet", so it is hardly surprising that the Jesuits are concerned about its possible future neighbour. They fear that the prospect of regular gunfire will undermine everything the house has represented for the past 50 years.
Shooting range policy yet to be finalised
While the new shooting range would be the most extensive complex of its kind on the island, a planning policy on shooting ranges is yet to be drawn up, even though one has been planned for a number of years.
The final draft of a "supplementary planning guidance for shooting ranges" was published by Mepa in October 2006, but it has not translated into actual policy. In February 2014, Mepa opened a fresh public consultation process to help formulate a policy and design guidance document on shooting ranges, but the process appears to be ongoing.
It remains to be seen whether such a policy would approve of siting a shooting range next to an established retreat house.
The 2006 draft policy does not specifically mention retreat houses, although perhaps this reflects the fact that Malta does not have too many of them. But it does, however, note that shooting ranges "should not be located close to hospitals, schools, rural settlements or residential areas, homes for retired or disabled due to acoustic nuisances generated."
Few details were given in the 2014 call for consultation, although Mepa did say that consideration should be given to the noise and direction of the shooting, together with the deposits of lead and other material. On the other hand, Mepa also noted that military installations - as well as quarries - should be considered as possible sites. Whether this would pave the way for the Mosta project remains to be seen, but the government's announcement that it was seeking to finalise a lease agreement over the site would suggest that the project is a fait accompli.