In 2017, a young Maltese priest wrote in a local newspaper that Good Friday processions "have gradually been transformed into exhibitions of power, vanity and self-affirmation". 

He could have gone one step further and said that these supposedly religious processions have been transformed into spectacles and shows, featuring Roman soldiers dressed to the hilt in their "Sunday best", including gold breastplates and flamboyant red plumes, on their way to a grim crucifixion. The rear of the procession is brought up by barefoot "penitents", dragging heavy chains and wearing hoods, just like the Ku Klux Klan.

The priest wrote that there is an "exodus of hundreds of Maltese" to Protestant faith groups because they are angered and scandalized by these so-called "manifestations of faith". In fact, Protestant Christians discarded these idolatrous displays centuries ago.

The last time I attended a Good Friday procession was at Rabat in 1969. Some friends urged me to go with them. The procession was slow and tedious. Every 15 minutes or so, a kitschy statue came into view and the aesthetic horrors of Maltese devotional "art" were gradually revealed.

 

John Guillaumier

St Julian's