A day passed is a day closer to our death, to our day of reckoning, depending on whether we believe in an afterlife or not. Faith and spirituality is the dividing line between whether we live a life of hope and serenity or one of hopelessness, despair and despondency. Not long ago, we had a national conference on the State of the nation, and no one should doubt that the importance given to spirituality is one yardstick for measuring a nation’s strength in the observance and practice of moral values. There is a gradual increase in secularisation and various other religions appearing due to numerous factors, such as migration.
In January of 2020, on a visit to id-Dar tal-Kleru, our Prime Minister affirmed that Malta will remain a secular state with the Roman Catholic faith firmly entrenched in the Maltese Constitution, but that everyone was free to practise any religion in Malta, even though the country shared values with Roman Catholicism.
A recent survey conducted by the Faculty of Theology showed in all probability that the majority of Maltese do not believe that churches have become irrelevant. It also found that while God and spirituality remained important to most, an emerging trend among the younger cohorts showed a pull away from these beliefs. That notwithstanding, most agreed that life made sense because of God and that religion was important.
This emerging trend among the younger generation should not be all that discouraging. Youths move to act only when they are fully convinced and committed to an ideal. Yet one may legitimately ask how do you or can you reconcile conviction with faith? Youths will only trust the Christian faith and feel they belong in the Church when they are convinced of its authenticity. Brainwashing or indoctrinating them will be of no use.
Declining Mass numbers per se are not indicative of the level of faith, spirituality and commitment of youths today. Mass attendance is definitely important, but it is only one criterion on which to gauge faith among youths.
One should distinguish between believing and belonging. Many Maltese youths still embrace human and religious values, such as the existence of God, the value and dignity of human life, Christian marriage, tolerance, a sense of justice, seeking meaning and cherishing the spiritual dimension of the human experience.
The challenge is how to transform the individualistic dimension of faith into the value of belonging to a living community of faith. Unless faith is understood as trust, it risks marginalisation. Faith is, above all, a lifestyle. Faith embraces culture. Although faith is reliable irrespective of it being demonstrated, living up to one’s faith and convictions makes it credible. As Rev. Dr John Berry, the Dean of the University of Malta’s Faculty of Theology, opined last year, what is imperative today is a faith that is explored, questioned and put into practice. This is what youths normally do – they question their faith seriously, return to it or strive to deepen and integrate it with the rest of their life. What is missing are the catalysts of faith that can inspire younger generations to be able to trust and to come to terms with themselves and God.
Most young people love to reach out to the sick, the poor or the environment. However, there are some generational differences in the perception of Catholicism in Malta. Some of the youth believe the Catholic Church is “out of touch” with the needs and way of thinking of young people. They may insist that it is mainly the Catholic Church’s influence that has made Malta “backward” in comparison to Europe. Divorce and LGBTIQ rights took a long time coming into Malta, the use of contraceptives and the possibility of IVF treatments employed a long time to somehow win over the Church’s non-objection, while abortion and euthanasia remain unspeakable words within the clerical hierarchy. Nonetheless, Catholicism continues to be an important aspect of Maltese identity. For example, Catholic seminal events such as baptism, confirmation and marriage are still an important part of one’s life and relationships with others.
It is quite common to ask young people to talk about the future. It is important, however, not to forget that to talk about the future is much harder, a much more difficult task, than to talk about the history and the past. To say that every era of faith has had its problems is not to deny all novelty to our present situation. It is only in the modern era that the question of faith has itself become a subject for theological inquiry. The question of faith had previously lain beneath the surface as a continuing undercurrent to theological and religious discussions.
Malta’s contemporary difficulties with the Christian faith might be characterised by the three terms of apathy, absence and attack. In many respects, it would seem easier to be apathetic in a country that provides a luxuriance of pleasant diversions. Absence, then, is the experience of emptiness, loneliness and abandonment. Finding itself under heavy attack whenever the Church spoke out on any controversial topic or whenever sexual abuses by the clergy came out in the open certainly did not promote the Church’s mission of propagating the faith.
Christian faith cannot be inserted as the answer to the problems of our future youth nor as to the primary motive for their actions. Christian faith can only be the ultimate option that lies beyond the immediate physical and psychological struggle; not the answer to their problems, nor an escape from their problems, but the ever calm invitation to find themselves and the real world of God and people by trust and by the love that overcomes fear. It is then, and only then, that faith will find an everlasting stronghold in the generations to come.
Dr Mark Said is an advocate