I cannot understand why positive news from the Catholic Church does not get much coverage in the local media. Perhaps, the contractors’ lobby is too strong on our Island. However, the TOM did report Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna’s clear message against the proposed development of a new supermarket in the Balluta area.
It seems that the Carmelite Friars at Balluta intend to transform their beautiful garden into a supermarket. The site of this garden is a dream. Besides running along the seafront, it is one of the few remaining untouched sites along the sea front that runs from Pieta up to St Julian’s. True, it is a remnant of a bygone age, when the whole area of Balluta represented Malta’s wilderness. Two hundred years ago, no one would have dreamed of going to live there.
St Julian’s was the place for exiled priests. When the local Church wanted to get rid of Dun Gejtanu Mannarino, who suffered from mental health problems brought on by many years of solitary confinement, he was sent to take care of the church of the Immaculate Conception in St Julian’s. Only a few shepherds and errant fishermen lived there at the turn of the 19th century.
Times have changed and the land that 200 years ago was simply a liability for their owners – and this explains why many pieces of land in this area were bequeathed to the Church or to one of our Monastic orders - is worth gold today. This explains why the Carmelite Friary of Balluta seems attracted to have its share of mammon! I am sure that these friars never expected Archbishop Scicluna to publicly lambast the project. The Archbishop is dead set against their plan to turn the priory garden into a supermarket.
Strictly speaking, the Archbishop cannot stop the Carmelite Friars from developing their property. This may sound strange. Many wrongly think that the Archbishop is a sort of a supreme head of the local Catholic Church. In terms of administration, the local bishop can only control the property belonging to the Curia.
The Archbishop has no control over the property of religious orders – or as we call them, in Maltese, il-patrijiet. They are autonomous of the local bishop or bishops. I am using the term bishops, as Gozo is a separate diocese and Scicluna’s ultimate jurisdiction is only on the secular clergy in Malta. Gozo falls under a separate administration and jurisdiction.
Moreover, if my memory does not fail me, the Carmelite Order has its Medieval statutes still in vigore and each of their Convents is still administrated separately. Therefore, it is the community of Balluta that decides on the future of the convent and Archishop Scicluna’s blessing is not required. The Carmelites can apply to the local secular authorities to develop their land and the bishop has no legal right to stop them.
Yet, the bishop has the moral authority and obligation to speak his mind. The stand he is taking in favour of the environment will only strengthen his profile and is to be admired.
From an urban point of view, the Archbishop is quite right to oppose such a development. My personal view is that this venture is one of pure speculation. There are numerous adequate supermarkets in the vicinity. The last thing that the Carmelite Friars should be doing at this stage is to get involved in urban speculation.
One may wish to compare what happened to a building in the main street of Balzan after the Nationalists won their election victory in 1987. I am here referring to an iconic, old corner house having a beautiful orange tree garden going back centuries. This house was destroyed to make way for a supermarket-cum shops. The powerful group of companies argued strongly in favour of the destruction of this old town house, insisting that there was a need for such an outlet in the village.
Ignoring the residents’ protests and good reasoning for preservation, the planning authority of the time gave the go-ahead. The supermarket was built and operated as the Dolphin Supermarket. This supermarket has since closed down. Today, the only economic activity in this whole complex rests on a branch of a local bank and a laundry outlet! We now have a massive ugly white elephant, which is empty, making the area look shabby and depressed. This is what this senseless destruction brought to Balzan for sheer greed.
I don’t know whether Malta really needs more supermarkets. However, if the arguments above are not convincing for the Carmelite Friars, perhaps, they should refresh their memory with similar stories involving their Order and other religious orders. One needs only to go next to the old St. Venera Church, at Santa Venera, to understand what I want to say. A few decades ago, a large stretch of land situated next to this church, which today belongs to the Carmelite Order, was sold for development. The resulting development changed the urban fabric of this area forever, turning what once was a medieval hamlet and parish, into an industrial slum. The same holds for the Augustinian Order. The Augustinian Order sold their beautiful garden next to their priory in St. Julian’s to be used for entertainment purposes. In the process, they ended up selling their spiritual soul to the devil and we now have a den of iniquity.
With some rationale, one would realize that there is a limit to how much 400 000 inhabitants can consume, whether it is food and/or commodities. It is just sheer madness and irresponsible to allow this to go on and on. It is nothing but wanton depravity on the part of the authorities that be. Therefore, the indiscriminate freedom to open and then stop operations for whatever reasons leaving property abandoned and an eyesore needs to be regulated. In the United States such failed projects are taxed. Malta can ill-afford to support any more senseless destruction.
What is certain is that Malta needs to stop opening her arms to this sort of stealth mode of inundating the island with supermarkets, restaurants various other outlets, etc. which are superfluous for the size and population of the island. In the process, we are failing to appreciate that we are depriving our future generations of that little share of history that our fore-bearers left us over hard borne years, as once destroyed it cannot be rebuilt.