Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1498223
11 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 APRIL 2023 most vulnerable the most impor- tant religious element of Chris- tianity: the resilient and spiritual hope that they could one day be saved. Gonzi sent these people to hell." Fr Anton d'Amato, the pres- ent director of the archbishop's migrants commission (and son of former Nationalist MP Helen D'Amato), would probably agree. He researched the Interdiction for his theology licentiate in 2019, and today supports the creation of a truth-and-reconciliation com- mitted "to understand what hap- pened and start healing and rec- onciling wounds." "It is like an intergenerational trauma," he told 103FM present- er Andrew Azzopardi. "It is still being passed on from one gen- eration to the next despite the passing of decades... the greatest hurt, the one that is inherited, is the internal division created in each person," D'Amato says, a di- vide made worse by the fact that devout Catholics were denied the grace of the sacraments. History, time and space Micallef's desire to see the Inter- dett monument inside an excised property of the Church would add a flavour of reparative justice. But Malta already struggles with imagination on the locations of monuments – and location does matter here – because the island has not yet dealt with so many "al- ien" memorials which no longer have a place in modern-day Malta. Historian Charles Xuereb argues in his book Decolonising The Mal- tese Mind – In Search Of Identity, that Malta needs to analyse its monumental landscape, especially in Valletta and its environs, where British monuments outnumber all others, quite the anomaly in a Maltese capital. "There are several monuments to British personnel, who lost their lives abroad with no con- nection with the Island's history. These alien memorials are block- ing deserved native ones. Vallet- ta still misses a monument to its prime patriot Mikiel Anton Vas- salli while it unashamedly boasts of a mausoleum for the British commissioner Alexander Ball who exiled him!" And it is not only the omission of an Interdett monument that riles Xuereb. His list of missed monuments needs a serious dis- cussion and proper policy, not just some accommodating solution to a quick-fix recollection of the Mintoff years. "I cannot help but agree with the suggestion to erect a monument to those politicians who in 1961 – practically forgot- ten even on the 50th anniversary of the event in 2021 – suffered at the hands of an outdated Catholic Church in Malta, under the Gonzi bishopric, stubbornly resisting late local secularisation. Such a monument should also include the 1930s victims of the Strickland party, also interdicted. "Recent omitted monuments in- clude one to the 43 illegally ban- ished Maltese to Uganda during WWII. In this case, to further rub salt in the wound of omission, in St Julian's there is a plaque hailing the notorious Col. Bertram Ede, who between 1930 and 1942 was secretly managing a network of prominent Maltese spies for the British government." Reconciliation. But how? Jason Micallef understands that it is disappointing that his own Labour government has not yet named even a single street for the victims of the Interdett (there are at least five streets named after El- lul Mercer). But rather than taking it to his own party, Micallef feels it is the Church that must respond in kind. "For an institution that has often lofty words about the state of the environment, donating an urban garden to the public can be a tan- gible gift of goodwill to recognise the damage of the Interdett," Mi- callef says. He refuses the tag of it being an opportunist claim for his VCA. "I have no problem in saying that we would support its mainte- nance," he says. And has not the Maltese Church paid its dues with the 1991 con- cordat for its lands? "No," Micallef says. "The Church paid its dues with the government's financ- ing of its teachers' salaries in its schools." In its document on ecclesial re- newal 'One Church, One Jour- ney', Archbishop Charles Sci- cluna lists specific processes the Archdiocese has committed itself to implement in these next four years. Page 67 carries the section: 'Wounds in our personal and col- lective memory'. "Unless one comes to a peaceful resolution with one's suffering, the effects of unresolved trauma can become contagious, passed on in families and tightly knit communities whose memories become distorted through unre- solved grief... This does not mean forgetting past events; it means re-examining them with a new at- titude..." There is no mention of the In- terdict. The uncaptioned photo underneath is that of Archbish- op Scicluna blessing the grave of Guze Ellul Mercer in 2019. "In Malta, the wounds of clericalism have taken on distinct forms that are particularly harmful because of our proximity to one another, our turbulent political history these past hundred years... It is paramount that we acknowl- edge our frailties, that we name how we have inflicted wounds on each other in the past and, as Christians, seek to engage in a long process of mutual listen- ing, seeking reparation, and, ulti- mately, praying for the power of the Spirit to be able to forgive one another." Micallef thinks the Maltese Church's apologies and bless- ings will never be enough to heal a historical wound such as the Interdett. "With all due respect, the Church must say 'sorry' with a deed," Micallef says, his eyes on the prize across the road from St Christopher Street. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt ABOVE: Thug-of-war: Archbisop Mikiel Gonzi (left) brandished the ultimate weapon by inflicting sin and the promise of Hell for errant voters in the 1960s, in his war against Dom Mintoff RIGHT: In 2019, Archbishop Charles Scicluna blessed the graves of Guze Ellul Mercer and the victims of the Interdiction Thug-of-war: Archbisop Mikiel Gonzi (left) brandished the ultimate weapon by inflicting sin and the promise of Hell for errant voters in the 1960s, in his war against Dom Mintoff