I refer to the article Mystery surrounds Bahar ic-Caghaq chapel (TMID 29 December). I appreciate this article and your concern for our heritage. I hope that the owner or tenant responsible for maintenance and restoration will be found as soon as possible and that the site be restored and made accessible to the public, even if were to serve a non-religious purpose.

I would however like to make a point concerning your manner of referring to religious orders and congregations in this article, that would certainly improve the quality of your publications if it were to be understood and observed. Please note that there is no such thing as Jesuit Friars; it is such a pity that a journalist interested in Maltese culture and heritage should lack such a basic knowledge regarding religious orders present in Malta. We Jesuits are simply Jesuits or members of the Society of Jesus (Kumpanija ta’ Gesù). Only the mendicant orders (Franciscans = Grey Friars, Dominicans = Black Friars, Carmelites = White Friars, Augustinians = Austin Friars and Discalced Carmelites = Teresians... as far as Malta is concerned) are called friars (traditionally the title Fra was used in Maltese for all members of these orders, but now it is used for those who are not priests, whereas priests are called patrijiet or fahders in Maltese). Benedectines and members other monastic orders are called monks (rhieb, in Maltese, though there are few people nowadays who have enough religious and Maltese culture to use this term, given that it has been many years since we have had a male monastic religious community in Malta). More recently founded orders, such as the Jesuits (or the Salesians), are not referred to as monks or friars since their community life serves their apostolic life and does not have a very characteristic structure. We life together to support each other by our friendship, to spend time together, to share what we earn by our own work: we do not live together to be able to pray regularly together every four hours or so, nor do we own big estates or farmland that make us self sufficient... we do normal jobs as teachers, parish priests, university lecturers, aid workers... and earn normal salaries. That is why we call our houses simply houses (djar) or communities (komunitajiet), not convents (kunventi), monasteries (monasterji), friaries (kunventi tal-frajiet) etc. They are houses where we eat sleep and spend our free time, but our real living space for most of the day is outside. The notion that most defines our living together is that of companionship (community of companions, hence kumpanija in Maltese; that translates into ‘societas’ in Latin, hence ‘society’ in English). In the case of the Franciscans and Dominicans, the notion is that of brotherhood (fraternitas in Latin, hence ‘friars’ and ‘friaries’). Sharing a flat with other university students is not the same as living in the same house with siblings... the whole lifestyle is different. Some new congregations have opted for a brotherhood style once again (such as the De La Salle Brothers), but you would call them ‘brothers’ (brahders) not friars. Incidentally, the distinctions have been mostly lost for feminine religious life: in the past one used to distinguish nuns (monastic) from sisters (mendicant and modern congregations), but nowadays the confusion is commonplace. Feminine ‘companionship’ communities also exist: the Mary Ward and Loreto ‘sisters’ are actually called ‘ladies’, and the latter ‘mothers’ (not only the superior, but all the members of the community are ‘Mothers’... hence ‘Mother Theresa’ who kept the title even when she founded her own congregation’). However, up till recently, women were forced to live indoors most of the time and real companionship style communities exist only recently.

To complicate matters, another typical mistake is that of confusing religious orders and congregations; this mainly a question of prestige and so is of minor importance, but a journalist should know how use titles appropriately, lest she end up mixing judges and magistrates, or speed boats and yachts. Religious institutions are called ‘Orders’ (‘ordni’ in Maltese, and that is a masculine noun) until and including the foundation of the Jesuits (in Malta: we have the Augustinian, Carmelite, Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit ‘Orders’, as far as I know...). Most of the other ‘groups’ of religious we know are usually ‘congregations’, especially the sisters. There are several other forms of religious association, but it would take a mini-course in Canon Law to explain the lot. Just check Wikipedia to see if the institution was founded before 1541 (or better, before 1594 to include Discalced Carmelites as separate from the older Carmelites): that would be an ‘order’; if founded later but is quite ‘big’ and ‘international’, you may safely call it congregation.

Going back to the chapel, you mention the Franciscan Friars (that’s correct) but you do not specify which order. All Franciscans are technically ‘minor friars’ (that means little brothers in Christ). However, some are simply called Minor Friars (ta’ Giezu), others are called Conventual Minor Friars (konventwali), and still others are Capuchin Minor friars (kapuccini); in latter cases ‘minor’ (minuri) is often left out to avoid confusion with the first order. There are still other Franciscan ‘reformed’ orders abroad... Usually, given that each order is completely distinct, one never refers to Franciscan friars without saying what order they belong to, especially when speaking of legal or economic matters. It could be that the Franciscan friars named in the land registry are not the same order that you contacted for comments, and even if it were so, you are unlikely to get any reaction from the Franciscans on this article unless you mention the order concerned. They will probably all think you are referring to another group of Franciscans.

Fr René Mario Micallef sj

Madrid