7 April of this year will mark 120 years since the birth of Herbert Ganado. Interest in this Maltese figure remains very much alive, especially given that his best-known work, Rajt Malta Tinbidel has recently been republished.

Ganado was born in Floriana on 7 April 1906; thus, one may consider him a son of his century. He studied at the Lyceum and later at the University of Malta, where he graduated as a lawyer in 1931. During his youth, Ganado held several positions, including president of the University Students' Council and Catholic Action. In 1933, Bishop Dom Mauro Caruana appointed him editor of Leħen is-Sewwa. As editor, Ganado gave the newspaper a more dynamic imprint by consistently writing about religious, cultural, social, historical, and political subjects. His ultimate aim was to spread Catholic culture and the Church's social doctrine. Ganado married Alda (née Randon) on 28 November 1936. Together, they had five children, although one child died shortly after birth.

Ganado's nationalism

According to Ganado, Maltese nationalism was born with the arrival of the British and, throughout its history, had two principal objectives: the preservation of our Catholic and cultural traditions as a country of an eminently European-Latin culture, and the acquisition - or rather the recognition - of political liberties that gradually evolved into responsible government. For Ganado, Maltese nationalism necessarily had to be Catholic because, under a Protestant power such as the British of his time and even earlier, there existed a danger that Protestant religious and cultural policies would suffocate our Catholic institutions and traditions. When the integration issue arose, this danger re-emerged with grave urgency. Ganado believed strongly in the defence of our Latin culture, especially the Italian language. He argued that every people, regardless of size, possesses its own characteristics, traditions, and customs. "We too, as an island and as a people, possess these characteristics," he stated, "such as the Maltese language and our many customs which are so dear to us."

Ganado's nationalism was Europeanist and not one that saw Malta as isolated from the rest of the world. He explained that in our history, we possess traditions that go beyond our island and unite us with Europe. As early as the third century BC, Malta had its own Senate and Assembly; it was a Municipium under the Roman Empire, enjoying the same laws, offices, magistrates, and honours as the people of Rome. Moreover, he placed Malta within the context of Sicily and the lingua franca that developed into Italian, which became our country's official and cultural language for centuries. Above all, Ganado argued that the core of our traditions came from the Romans, the Normans, the Aragonese, the Castilians, the Sicilians, and the Knights of the Order - all of whom linked us to the Catholic tradition and culture of Europe. "Malta", he argued, "is too small to be considered in isolation and too small to have a culture entirely of its own. It is the European-Latin unity that gives us our culture."

A defender of the faith

It is no surprise that Ganado was a man of strong Catholic faith, so much so that throughout his life he was nicknamed "il-Beato" (the Blessed) and "il-Mezzo Prete" (the half-priest). His Catholicism was clear-cut and militant, evident from his earliest writings as editor of Leħen is-Sewwa. For instance, Ganado admitted that he had at times praised Mussolini, as Pope Pius XI and many political leaders of the era had done, for preventing the Communists from carrying out a revolution in Italy. Likewise, he praised the Spanish general Francisco Franco for fighting against the anti-Catholic Republicans. Ganado viewed the revolutions of Franco and Mussolini as necessary to save their countries from Communism, which he saw as a threat to the Christian religion. As he himself stated, "Franco's Revolution was a revolution that saved Christian civilisation in Europe." Ganado believed that the Church should not be confined to the sacristy but must enter the public sphere. This became particularly clear in the 1950s and 1960s, when he strongly opposed Maltese socialists who tried to portray the Archbishop and the clergy as "enemies of the people and allies of the oppressors". For Ganado, Church and State should always walk hand in hand for the religious and social good of humanity, since the human person cannot be divided into two. He held a concept of "government" that may seem somewhat foreign today. He argued that government, whether elected by the people or not, always represents God's authority in society. Here, Ganado directly drew from Church teaching and the Church Fathers regarding the theological definition of government - namely, an institution ordained by God to promote temporal welfare, justice, peace, and the spiritual and material good of a people. For this reason, Ganado could never tolerate individuals in government who described the Church as a "reactionary fascist clique", language used by Bolsheviks in other countries. He knew that if the Church were relegated to the sacristy, the next step would be its destruction. Since religion was under attack, he felt it was his duty to defend it.

An authentic democrat

Ganado's idea of what it meant to be democratic may seem foreign to us today, accustomed as we are to a society where "democracy" can mean redefining marriage, freezing embryos, or liberalising drugs "by electoral mandate". Ganado believed that the foundation of the country's democratic future necessarily had to rest on the Catholic religion. He maintained that Catholicism should serve as the basis of our social and political life, and that State and Church should work hand in hand rather than one dominating the other. Ganado envisioned a democracy based on Catholic sociology, where harmony would exist among all social classes, whereas the socialists sought a Marxist sociological base that would incite hatred between classes. The social justice he supported was that inspired by the popes, not by class struggle. Ganado's democracy thus meant a democracy within the limits of Catholic morality, without the excesses of the market and without State interference where it should not intervene. Above all, for Ganado, democracy in the true sense was not possible without a solid Catholic moral framework, human dignity, and the common good. Democracy, as the Church teaches, is not absolute and must be based on a correct understanding of the human person, respecting natural law and transcendent rights.

Conclusion

In the political sphere, although he never held political authority, Ganado held strong ideas that remain relevant today. He was a convinced Catholic of authentic democratic and patriotic principles. Today's political scene lacks idealists like him, particularly Christian idealists, and this absence is deeply felt. If we wish to change our country's direction, we must offer Catholic solutions based on truth - not further illusions of smoke and mirrors politics.