It is now almost two months since Judge Giovanni Bonello resigned from the European Court of Justice on turning 70 but his successor has not yet been named.

Although this could have created problems at the court had there been any case involving Malta (in which case an ad hoc judge would have had to be nominated), it is thought that the appointment of Dr Bonello’s successor will soon be announced.

The almost unanimous opinion at the Law Courts is that Chief Justice de Gaetano will be appointed.

His possible departure, plus the expected resignation of Mr Justice Antonio Depasquale, who turns 65 early next year, and the ill-health of Mr Justice Gino Camilleri, may lead to a wholesale change of the Mr Justices’ Bench.

The three names most frequently mentioned by lawyers and court insiders are Mr Justice J.D. Camilleri, who has been Acting Chief Justice many times but is not thought the most probable candidate, Mr Justice Joe Galea Debono and Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Colombo.

Among the names of lawyers regularly cited who may be appointed magistrates to take over from magistrates who may be appointed judges, or even as judges themselves, are women lawyers Sandra Sladden and Audrey Demicoli.

But what fosters lawyers’ speculation most is the perceived trend by the government to appoint very clearly “pro-church” people to all posts of responsibility.

The Chief Justice himself was a former head of a Catholic lay organisation. The head of the Civil Service, Dr Grima, was a former head of Catholic Action. So too was Dr Lawrence Gonzi, which may have been one of the factors militating in his favour in the eyes of then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami. And the man first proposed by the government then withdrawn in the face of unanimous opposition, Dr Andre Camilleri.

There is at least one case of a magistrate who was promised, then refused promotion to a judge solely due to the fact that he is living in what Catholics like Dr Gonzi or Dr Tonio Borg consider to be “an irregular situation”.

With an increasingly pluralist Maltese society making very different choices to that taught by the Church, and with hot issues cropping up every day in court, from marriage annulments to issues of medical and legal ethics, a deliberate “pro-church” series of appointments will, many lawyers and civil rights apologists fear, lead to an increasingly hostile, reaction by the ever-increasing non-church going public.