There was no reaction yesterday from the Curia regarding Fr Mark Montebello’s blatant defiance of the Archbishop’s six-month ban to publicly discuss Church, moral, ethics and faith issues.

Contacted for comments, the Curia’s PRO Charles Buttigieg said he had had no official reaction. “As I told your newspaper last week, the Archbishop does not make public the details of meetings he has with the clergy. We will issue a statement if there is the need,” he said – putting heavy emphasis on the “if”.

Last Tuesday, TMID broke the news that the controversial priest had been banned by the Archbishop from making any public comments in relation to the issues mentioned, after he described the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Pope in the Church’s newspaper il-Gens as a bad joke. The editor of the paper apologised after an inundation of complaints by the faithful readers.

Despite the ban, however, a Sunday newspaper carried an interview with the priest in which he reiterated his position on the Pope, as well as on a host of controversial dogmatic matters such as the church’s position on gay marriages.

Furthermore, Fr Montebello is scheduled to appear on Bondiplus tonight to discuss the ban itself, which the Archbishop’s office refused to comment upon, both last week and yesterday.