A priest should not use the Blessed Sacrament for political comments, the Curia told The Malta Independent.
The Curia was asked for its reaction to a recent hour long video which Mosta priest Father David Muscat posted a few hours after former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat officially resigned from Parliament on Monday.
“No more Invictus,” one can hear Fr Muscat say in the live video alongside him reciting the rosary over and over again. “How great God is.” His video shows Muscat in front of a church altar with a depiction of the Virgin Mary.
His video came hours after Muscat officially resigned from Malta’s parliament. Muscat ended 12 years as an MP with a simple, short speech which lasted less than two minutes.
Many Labour and Muscat supporters reacted to the priest’s live feed, some even commenting that such actions led to people leaving the church.
This newsroom contacted the Archdiocese of Malta for its reaction to Fr Muscat’s video. Questions were sent regarding whether the Archdiocese will take action for Fr Muscat’s actions. The archbishop’s spokesperson replied back with two simple sentences.
“Such comments are not approved or encouraged by the Curia. A priest should not use the Blessed Sacrament for political comments.”
This is not the first time that Fr Muscat has stirred up controversy.
Back in December, he had urged Muscat to go ahead and have his meeting with Pope Francis, for the former prime minister to ask the Pope for forgiveness.
Another time, back in September 2019, Fr Muscat criticised a Victory Day speaker due to his Arabic sounding name, Dr Abdalla Kablan.
Last summer, Fr Muscat joined the far-right Imperium Europa to celebrate Nazi apologist Norman Lowell’s birthday. Fr Muscat delivered a speech praising Lowell, and wished for him to “live on for another 100 years”. To this comment, the Archbishop Charles Scicluna had said that the Church dissociated itself from Muscat’s views. “Ideologies that sow hatred and discrimination on the basis of race or culture are contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church,” Archbishop Scicluna had said in a tweet.