“All change”, if we are to progress

Change is in the air. First we had the Nationalist Party (PN) conference where radical changes in a document, proposing a drastic shift in the party’s thinking, were presented. Then we had the Church also realising that change was essential for survival. How appropriate that this call for renewal in the Church is announced just before we celebrate the coming of Christ on earth. “We wish for the coming Christmas to serve as a powerful experience of this ‘light’ which stimulates us to make an effort to leave the dark womb of a closed mentality...”, said the bishop’s Pastoral Letter “The courage to renew oneself” for Advent 2011. The PN is changing to ensure it gets back into power and the Church is changing to retain it. As the Bishops put it so succinctly, “The one who does not renew himself will wither away”. Of course that applies to “herself” as well. Both institutions are realising that people are thinking for themselves more and more and will not follow blindly what politicians and priests tell them to do. The age of ‘talking down’ to parishioners and constituents is gone. Theologian Rene Camilleri recognised that fact. He told The (Malta) Times’ Claudia Calleja, “We [priests] exist to respect the people and to give them what they really need...” Politicians also need to respect the people they represent and not ride roughshod over them until an election is in the offing. The PN tried to influence people on divorce and failed, while the Church has realised that rather than being intimidated when threatened with fire and brimstone, people tend not to take it seriously. However, although the anti-divorce campaign fiasco for the Church and the PN brought the issue of change to a head, it was also other important issues, which have brought about this ‘rethink’ in these institutions. The distance between them and the grassroots has been increasing noticeably. They have seen the need to climb down from their ivory towers and not only mingle but understand what the community needs. It was interesting to note that Fr Camilleri thinks the Church should also be upfront about its tactics. Whereas, we are used to political parties using marketing to further their propaganda (except for the maverick priests who used billboards, banners and leaflets to promote their anti-divorce message) the Church is usually coy about “selling their product”. But Fr Camilleri is not bashful, “Speaking in commercial terms, the Church is a product. Until recently it took it for granted that people’s presence meant the product was being sold. But today, if the Church does not market itself well... there is a problem,” he said. And the problem is? Boring priests (well one of the difficulties). “The Church needs to update its structures to make Mass more appealing by, for example, not allowing a boring priest to celebrate the most well-attended Sunday Mass,” he told Ms Calleja. “We also need to have self-respect. If I realise I am boring people I need to do something about it,” he said. Unfortunately though, most boring people, not only priests, are blissfully unaware of the tedium they generate. Fr Camilleri believes that the boring priests are unlikely to change so, “It’s high time to review and update the structures.” So if the Church is also restructuring, it looks like it will be joining our national airline and it will be priests as well as pilots who will be made redundant. Of course priests cannot be fired unless they behave very badly. So the restructuring for the Church will mean moving the boring priests away from the congregation. If only it had thought of moving certain priests (not so much the boring) away from the congregation a lot earlier, it would have saved itself a lot of trouble. Now it is not just in marketing that the Church is following in political parties’ footsteps. It also called, last year, on the services of Church communications expert Jim McDonnell. He had advised that the Church had to vie with all the other institutions in a pluralistic society, since people were constantly bombarded with information and messages sent out by different media. The Church had “to compete” with that and make itself “relevant and interesting”. Religion would not be seen as boring if the information given out was relevant to people’s everyday lives. For example, subjects like “ethics and spirituality”, he had said. Now, the Church already has an excellent marketing tool in its radio station RTK, which broadcasts interesting and wide-ranging discussions. But, as the Bishops and Fr Camilleri mentioned, it is the ‘maverick’ priests who are doing a disservice by causing difficulties in communication. “Unless vigilant, the Church runs a risk of running dry with liturgy and becoming theatrical... In many cases, we are still speaking in yesterday’s language and using methods of the past, in spite of the fact that we are aware of the great risk we are taking by doing so,” said Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech’s letter. There were some very poignant points made in the letter, which if the Church had raised earlier would have lessened the need for divorce. While referring to the negativity of an existence lived by ‘habit’ the Bishops said, “In fact, we feel that habitualness is a condition which has infiltrated various aspects of human activity. “In marriage and the family, it is easy to become familiar with one another, with the result that we become careless in our relations.” Another relevant observation in the letter was, “Some people request the bestowal of the sacraments, for themselves, or for their children, as a social convention.” I have no doubt that there are people who go up to receive Holy Communion on Sundays, or at funerals and weddings, because they either feel peer pressure, or want to be seen as “good” in the eyes of their neighbours. “Habitualness leads to laxity, abuse and to mediocrity”, said the bishops recognising that change is essential if we are all to move forward. All this talk of change reminded me of travelling on the tube in London, when at certain stations an “All change” message was relayed for everyone to change trains. It is not enough for the Church and the PN to make radical changes; we still need to see more changes, especially in the political arena where it is sorely needed. Article published in the Malta Independent on Sunday on 04 December 2011