Silenzio

The view from the Franciscans' garden in Floriana is breathtaking. It had never been my lot to visit their little heaven before. It also came as a complete surprise at the end of a mass marking World Environment Day which I attended on invitation of the Church Environment Commission. The bishop of Gozo celebrated mass and gave a longish sermon.

I was treading a fine line I have set myself. As the leader of a political party which makes a clear distinction between religion and politics, attending masses and religious celebrations on formal invitation because of my post is always tricky. I am also a private person entitled to the wrestle with or to the surrender to God and to walk away from it if I choose. Generally speaking I avoid the religious bit simply to be there as a politician. Somehow it is much easier with faiths which are not my own. I have been to mosques, synagogues and Hindu temples, Bahai faith meetings and Buddhist events, where being a visitor is much easier. The terms of my presence are clear. In fact the hospitality offered to a stranger always creates a strong positive feeling, a definite warmth. There I represent politics, green politics and the respect it shows to all faiths and to philosophies of no faith.

As a catholic in a catholic religious celebration, the overlap with politics is uncomfortable. I do not want to be swept along, taken for granted to be one of the community or even under pressure to be seen to be so or risk coming under suspicion of being an apostate to the dominant faith. The fact that I am catholic is a complete accident as far as politics is concerned. I have no wish to secure votes on the basis of religious allegiance. I find the thought of it repulsive. Still, I feel the pull of those who are disgusted by the exploitation of religion for political purposes and of those who demand an obscene mingling of religion and politics. I know that almost nobody will understand what I am doing there: doing my job as a politician and acknowledging the immense social, cultural, political and now environmental potential of the Catholic Church in Malta.

Then again, this was special event. There have been few developments in recent years as positive and encouraging as the setting up of the Church Commission on the Environment. It is competent, prudent, precise and also courageous, above all it is authoritative. There can be no question of its enormous potential to create awareness of the environmental challenges we face to an extent we could not begin to hope for if it did not exist. The presence of the Bishop of Gozo rather than of the Archbishop is also very positive. So far the Gozo diocese does not have a Church Environment Commission of its own while Gozo faces an onslaught on the environment like never before. There is hope that the bishop of Gozo will avail himself of the services of the Maltese Commission and extend its positive influence to events in Gozo.

I definitely wanted to be there if my presence would be seen to be an encouragement to the ongoing process. It turned out that I was the only politician present and I enjoyed the experience all the more. Not least the surprise vista over the harbour with its twinkling lights. I will certainly accept the monks' invitation to return, to visit them privately, to learn more of Francis, their saint who called the sun his sister and the moon his brother, of his challenge to the nascent modern world eight centuries ago and of its relevance gaining strength with every passing day. Perhaps they will let me meditate in their garden, reached through the door marked Silenzio.

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