Every person in the world, knowingly and unknowingly, is seeking happiness. Not the superficial feeling that comes and goes depending on whether you slept well at night; but a deeper happiness, one that makes a human being feel that he or she is at peace, irrespective of ups and downs that invariably colour our lives.
The pursuit of this interior peace is a target we all share. However, some lose their bearings and are duped to think that it depends on possessions. Others think that power or popularity could fill the enormous desire to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately these are dead ends.
I believe that for a person to be truly happy, he or she needs to undertake an interior journey and find meaningful answers to the big questions in life - Who am I? Why am I here? And where am I going? These are not trivial questions and we grapple with them throughout our life. But the search is worth the effort since whoever finds meaning, purpose and direction is a truly happy man or woman.
So what can help us in this fundamental interior journey? We believe a key ingredient is interior silence. Just like fertile soil nourishes a plant, silence supports and enables our search. A person seeking this sort of silence is a person actively engaged in discovering meaning; the opposite of someone who is sleeping on the inside. Jesus Christ himself, the ultimate human being, frequently sought silence by retreating from the hustle and bustle of life to come in touch with what really matters. This is an example we want to emulate.
In practice, it is our common experience that it is often very hard to find silence in our day to day life. Recognising this need, the Jesuits all over the world invest time, energy and money to run retreat houses. Some retreat houses are big, some are small, some are in the countryside, some are in the middle of cities; they have one thing in common - they nurture silence as a tool that supports people to find interior silence, which in turn allows them to get in touch with themselves and with God.
In Malta we are truly blessed to have Mount Saint Joseph Retreat House, which is a sanctuary of peace and quiet. Whenever newcomers visit the House, they invariably tell us how the place has a wonderful quality about it that inspires peace. Thousands of people have enjoyed this House and went back to their life encouraged, re-invigorated, re-energised or even converted. It is truly a privileged place where so many people have found springs of life and wellbeing. It is a place where our Jesuit mission to accompany people in their search for meaning and for God is concretised and made real.
Regrettably, we now face the prospect of losing this haven of silence. The shooting range planned to be built right next to Mount Saint Joseph will ruin the silence we value so much. Here is why we think this Shooting Range should be located elsewhere:
The complex will have 6 shooting ranges in its grounds. Just one of them will be dedicated to clay pigeon shooting and will include 5 shooting positions (according to the developer's website). The operator will obviously seek to maximise his investment, which means that we can expect a barrage of noise from multiple shooting positions at all times of the day and especially on weekends, when the Retreat House is full;
The Shooting Complex will include a 300 metre range where powerful rifles will be used. These guns will generate an extremely loud bang;
A UK Government report, Clay Shooting - Guidance on the Noise Control by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (2003) recommends a noise buffer zone of one kilometre to one-and-a-half kilometres between clay pigeon shooting and inhabited buildings. The perimeters of the planned Shooting Complex and Mount Saint Joseph's grounds are 110 metres away from each other, a mere 10% of what is recommended;
Firearm noise is characterised by short bursts of noise at irregular intervals. This type of noise is much harder to ignore than, for example, a continuous din of traffic;
The nuisance value of noise depends on the context. For example, if you are in a factory floor, you tend to accept a certain level of noise. However, if you are trying to sleep, the same intensity of noise will drive you up the wall. Likewise, if you specifically go to a place to find silence and instead are greeted with a chorus of firearms, you will be hugely distracted.
The combination of the above considerations, combined with the fact that most of the shooting will happen in outdoor ranges, means that even if the developers install sound barriers, the noise will still be disturbing.
The disturbance will affect almost 10,000 people per year; people from all walks of life who come for a variety of reasons but all seek silence.
Apart from the noise, we are also concerned about safety. Apart from Mount Saint Joseph, there are worried residents and unsuspecting motorists using nearby public roads that will be too close for comfort. Moreover, the rifle range included in the proposed Shooting Range points towards Maria Regina College (boys' secondary school ) which is well within the range of a competition rifle. In this respect, we would like to understand what measures are being planned to avoid accidents. People do make mistakes and the potential users of a shooting range are not all experienced marksmen!
In recent days, the Jesuits have voiced their concerns in the media. Regrettably, there are a few individuals who cannot tolerate someone who disagrees with them and have resorted to shameful tactics that can only harm their cause.
However, the large majority have expressed support for our cause. The petition launched by the Christian Life Communities (see www.clcmalta.com) has garnered over 7,500 signatories in a few days.
We believe that in our noisy world, the sound of silence is truly golden. We also believe that it is essential that all of us, at various points in our lives, need to make a pit stop to refresh our engine and re-fuel our tank. We continue to insist that a shooting range at the doorstep of a place dedicated to silence is not in the interest of Maltese society. We therefore call upon the civil authorities and people of good will to protect Mount Saint Joseph as an oasis of peace in a desert of noise. We owe it to upcoming generations and to the thousands who have yet to come searching for silence and happiness.
Fr Patrick Magro Sj is Jesuit Provincial for Malta