An official of the Church in Malta and a fiery civil society activist, Alessandra Dee Crespo is both these things without conflict as she puts into practice evangelical teachings by actively fighting for the good and living a life of service.
“There should not be a conflict between activism and what you believe in, because, after all, the fight for justice and truth are evangelical concepts.”
Crespo is an official of the Church, whose ultimate superior is the Maltese Episcopal Conference and works as the Chancellor at the Regional Tribunal of Second Instance, while also being a striking public figure, who actively fights for justice as a member of #occupyjustice and the vice-president of Rule of Law NGO Repubblika.
She said that she receives a lot of scrutiny from people saying that she should not be involved in activism because of her position within the Church. “Some genuinely tell me that your place as a Church official is not in the streets, protesting or speaking out.”
“You have to translate your belief into action. So when the priest tells us at the end of the Mass, ‘It is finished. Go in peace’, that's where our work starts and there should be no conflict between what you believe and how you make your belief present in the world because this is not partisan politics.”
When asked how she remains a believer in spite of everything she replied: “For those who give any time to a deeper consideration of the faith, the existence of evil will inevitably offer a challenge at one point or another.”
The first layperson at the University of Malta, male or female, to be academically qualified for the priesthood, meetings with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination and Crespo’s ongoing fight for justice were the moments from Crespo’s life that The Malta Independent on Sunday explored during an interview with Crespo.
Photo: Zigli Jonathan Borg
Academically qualified for the priesthood
Crespo is known for being the first layperson in Malta to be academically qualified for the priesthood.
She explained how she entered university quite late in 2002 when she was already pushing 30 at the time, as she had spent a long time working for Caritas before deciding that she wanted to academically back-up her experience working in the Church.
At the time she was sitting for an evening course in Religious Studies. However, after doing the course for two years, a lecturer noticed that she was doing well and suggested that she switches to the daytime course for a Bachelor in Sacred Theology, a canonical course aimed at candidates for the priesthood.
“I laughed in his face and said but I think you are mistaken, I am not a man and neither am I a seminarian.”
However, the lecturer pointed out that canonical degrees abroad in Pontifical Universities are open to everyone, it is only in Malta that this is not the case, by custom not as a rule.
So she wrapped up the two years she completed as a diploma and then applied for the course Bachelor Sacred in Theology.
“I got a lot of opposition from the dean of the time. He could not understand why I wanted to do the theology course that was reserved for candidates for the priesthood. He was very dismissive. In no way did he ever say it to my face 'because you are a woman' or 'because you are not a seminarian', but he did enough to try to get me to give up.”
“I spent a year waiting, but I did not want to give up, it's something I wanted to do. I eventually went to the Office of the Registrar where I was informed that I have every right to choose a course of my liking as this is a secular university. So in my next request, I quoted the bylaws and got in.”
Against the odds, she began the seven-year full-time course which eventually led her to achieve a licentiate in sacred theology, Summa Cum Laude, in both courses.
“I encountered a lot of hostility from some of the seminarians. Some of them didn't even speak to me for the entire course. But others were very welcoming and I made lifelong friends. It is a cross-section of the misogyny that permeates Maltese society. Some, clerics or not, still think that a woman’s place is at home and must be beyond her station to acquire information, especially academic information that in their mind is reserved only for candidates of the priesthood.”
Meetings with Pope Benedict XVI
When talking about Ratzinger she said that he was “always a superstar in the Catholic Church. Love him or hate him, he's like marmite”.
Crespo recalled how she first met him in 1997 when she was a Caritas delegate at a conference at the Vatican.
Asked about her first impressions of Ratzinger she said that she was quite a news junkie and even before she joined Caritas in 1990, she was volunteering with the Church, therefore, she was very well aware of the “reputation he suffered”.
She mentioned that there were, and still are, a lot of commentators, both secular and Church commentators, who really dislike Ratzinger, but she feels that these people do not really know him.
She defended him by saying “a conservative is someone who recognises the good that there is and wants to preserve it and hand it down to future generations”.
“I first got to know him through his writings, I have read his writings since at least 1997 because he was always very famous… I had no academic information in 1997, but I could understand what he wrote because he had a way of putting profound concepts in the most human words possible. He was never lofty in his writings, things didn't go over your head, he knew and understood the human condition and he wanted to elevate it.”
When she met Ratzinger, she was 26 at the time which made her the youngest delegate to attend the conference.
“Since I was the youngest, the organisers were very happy that they managed to attract a young person, and treated me like a mascot.”
“The organiser told me ‘as the youngest delegate I want you to meet cardinal Ratzinger’. I told him ‘As if, no way, I'm scared’.”
However, any prior impression of him vanished. She described him as “soft-spoken” and greeted her as if she were “the most important person in the room”.
One thing which stuck with her was that Ratzinger expressed how pleased he was to see someone so young engaged and working in the Church, and he advised her to never give up.
“I always remembered that.”
She explained how she always found a lot of comfort in those words whenever she struggled and had doubts about working in the Church.
“It’s not the first time I just want to pack up and leave. I love the Church dearly but she can be very infuriating,” she added with a laugh.
Not only those words, but even his writing stuck with her. She said that whenever she struggled to understand something in her course, or even today, she always returns to Ratzinger’s writings.
After he resigned on 28 February 2013, she wanted to properly meet him, as over the years he reinforced her faith through his writings and through his willingness to engage with people who did not necessarily agree with him.
So in November 2015, she got in contact with a friend whom she had met at the same conference where she first met Ratzinger, and she asked him whether it would be possible to meet him.
Her request was granted and she was asked to choose a couple of days that were convenient for her.
“I went twice within months and every time I went he always asked for Monsignor Scicluna. You could tell that Benedict loved Archbishop Scicluna. In fact, the last time I saw him, he told me ‘Monsignor Scicluna e’ un piccolo grande uomo'” (Mgr Scicluna is a small, great man).
When Benedict died, Alessandra attended the funeral. “I wanted to thank him and say arrivederci.”
Daphne’s influence and the ruthless desire to fight for justice
Shifting to her activism, Crespo was asked how and when she became so involved in this.
She said that she was always up to date with what was going on in the world and in the country.
“I lived during the 80s. There was a period in the 80s, I was a young teenager, so I got this zeal for right and wrong during that turbulent period. Not necessarily tied to religious belief. Right and wrong is not solely a religious concept. When you grow up in a certain atmosphere you get this wish to make things right.”
She pointed out how after the 80s, things were a lot calmer; she attended mass meetings and was an advocate for Malta entering the EU, but there was a lot more stability at the time.
The woman who really caused a major shift in her life was Daphne Caruana Galizia.
“I read Daphne from the very beginning. I read her columns when she just started writing in the papers. I started getting interested and worked up about scandals, but like most, we were just spectators, we went to a couple of protests but we still treated her risky investigations like a spectator sport."
“Of course, it all changed on 16 October 2017 (the day Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered); like most I was shocked to the core but not really surprised.”
Asked where she was when she first received the news about Daphne's murder, she said that she was in her office and she had just clicked on her blog and read what turned out to be Daphne’s famous last words.
About half an hour later her phone vibrated and one message was from a parish priest friend saying, “I think they finally got Daphne”.
“My blood turned cold.” She was confused as she had only just read her blog half an hour before.
She cancelled an appointment that she had, got in her car and drove around listening to 103 RTK until she found herself in Bidnija.
“While looking at the scene from Targa Gap, all the tents and all the lights, part of me still said ‘hurry up and go home to see what Daphne's going to write about this’. It took us a long time to really absorb the fact that the chronicle of our age was gone. Silenced.”
After that moment of confusion and denial, she immediately attended the first demonstration and decided that she is going to “get stuck in”.
“I kept one of the big posters they were handing out, I think it was in Sliema, Amery Street where Daphne had grown up, they had given out these posters of Daphne, black and white, and I still have one of them displayed at home as a reminder of my commitment.”
“At her funeral, I had promised her that I will do whatever I can to see that justice is achieved someday. To cement it I had gone to Bidnija and laid my flowers there. For public accountability, I wrote a blog post for manueldelia.com, saying that it is our turn now."
“I couldn't just remain on the fringes anymore; it had gone beyond just reading about it, I had to do something about it. Not just for Daphne, it’s much bigger than that, everything that is happening in this country, it's all connected.”
How do you unwind?
Crespo was asked when she is not out on the streets fighting for justice or at work, how does she unwind?
She chuckled and said: “I'm always wired, the situation in this country is such that you can't really switch off. We're always on the go.”
However, she said that it was very important for her that she finds pockets of beauty in life that can “soothe the soul”.
“For me, beauty is one of the great lessons that Benedict gave me. Finding beauty even in the mundane.”
She mentioned that she enjoys films, reading (although she admitted this has taken a hit in the past few years), going to concerts and going out in general with friends, but not aimlessly, it has to be something meaningful.
Although she is constantly encouraging people to wake up and fight for justice, she said that she does not blame people for switching off, as it all gets a bit too overwhelming at times when you see what is going on and nothing of note happens.
“When I do switch off, I try not to switch off for too long because then it's hard to get the motor running.”
Advice to young people
Asked to give advice to the younger generation she said: “Use whatever you have learnt for the greater good.”
“Start small, see what needs to be done at home, because if you start big you might get lost, but there's always something to do small.”
“But get stuck in, don't leave it to others.”
Hopes for 2023
Asked about her hopes for the new year, she said: “I really hope that for Daphne's parents, this year will be the year that they see the beginning of full justice, at least the beginning.”
“My greatest wish for 2023 is that the people really realise that this fight for truth and justice is not just the responsibility of a small number of people, it is in everybody's interest to see that justice is done. I really wish that people stop looking at it from the perspective that best suits them. We owe it to future generations. What kind of country are we handing down to them?”