Today, the Catholic Church in Malta can most probably be a typical case study for management students with regard to the devastating effects of when change management is not managed at all.

Following the result of the divorce referendum, I certainly feel that the Catholic Church in Malta, especially its leadership, is still shell-shocked to its core. This was very much evident in the debate on the enactment of the civil union bill, as the Church was noticeable by its silence rather than anything else. It is obvious that the Church and its leadership seem at a complete loss on how to cope with the change in the society that surrounds them.

In this article, I am not advocating that the Church becomes more vociferous or makes its presence felt stronger. Doing so will only make things worse; the problems of the Catholic Church in Malta are more deep and profound. 

In my opinion, the core root of the problem is the mindset with which the Church in Malta still operates to this very day. This mindset is based on the assumption that everyone or almost everyone in Malta is a follower of the Catholic Church and follows the principles of the Catholic faith. Time and time again this mindset has proved to be flawed. It certainly feels that the Church in Malta has still to come to terms with the stark realisation that, while this mindset might have been logical some years ago, this is certainly not the case anymore.

If we agree that the above mindset is not plausible any longer, then the whole present ‘modus operandi’ of the Catholic Church in Malta has to change. Not doing so means that the Church would remain operating with an unrealistic mindset, using ineffective methods until it becomes completely irrelevant. Thus the Catholic Church in Malta needs to embark on reforming the way it operates to deal with the reality it is surrounded by in 2014.

The first priority of the Catholic Church is to review all the components of its internal operations, especially its human resources and take stock of it to make sure that it is using the right people to do the right job. It must also review what different means the Catholic Church will use to keep contact with its followers. It cannot keep using the communications channels it used decades ago while leaving other channels untouched.

The second thing the Church should focus on is prioritisation. At present, much of the Church’s clergy is heavily involved in the organisation of populist activities (processions, annual feasts etc) which really and truly have little effect on the faith experience or formation of its followers. Today, these are more of a traditional/cultural expression rather than a faith experience and it would benefit the Church to have such a traditional/cultural expression organised by whoever is interested in doing so, without the direct involvement of the Church as an organisation or its clergy.

Finally, I strongly believe the Church in Malta should reform its approach, by focusing on a new way to interact with society at large. This new way would give utmost priority to the formation of its followers to make sure that they are well formed in its doctrine, while making sure that the focus is put on quality rather than quantity. The ultimate aim should be that the Church focuses on having fully prepared followers rather than focusing on having a big number of pseudo followers. This huge lack of formation comes out screaming in many instances. A case in point is when people turn against the Church, as they think that participation in the sacraments is their divine right and not an expression of God’s sign, in line with the faith they should be living.

I know that what I am advocating is a very big and bold change. Most of all, it requires a strong, focused and emotionally intelligent leadership, which today, unfortunately, is very lacking in the Church in Malta. However, besides all the other challenges, the first main challenge is that the Church and its leadership change their mindset once and for all.

Without such a change, I strongly fear that the Church in Malta, as an organisation, is likely to become even more irrelevant in today’s world. The present ‘modus operandi’ gives it many disadvantages which it cannot keep on carrying. The two main disadvantages is that on one hand, as a direct result of the present practice, the Church gives the impression that it is an overbearing organisation, while on the other hand it portrays great levels of hypocrisy when its followers desert it teachings on certain issues only to crawl back to the Church during the so called populist-traditional-cultural activities or when it’s time to look good for the next sacrament delivery within the family.

It is true that Jesus, in Matthew 16:18, had promised that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail on the Church, but resting on one’s laurels and doing nothing is not an option either.

Silvan Mifsud

Siggiewi