BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Pope Benedict starts
26-hour visit to Malta


April 17, 2010




“Jien kuntent ħafna li ninsab fostkom! [I am delighted to be here with you!]” were the first words, in Maltese, pronounced Pope Benedict XVI on Maltese soil during his short visit to the country.

He landed at the Malta International Airport as scheduled at 1650 CEST Saturday and was welcomed by the highest Maltese authorities, including the President and Mrs Abela, the Prime Minister and Mrs Gonzi, the Cabinet, members of the diplomatic corps, the Archbishop of Malta and the Bishop of Gozo.

The President and the Pope then walked on a red carpet to a dais with the President where they accorded a salute by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) Band, which will played the Vatican anthem and the Maltese national anthem.

“It gives me great joy to be here in Malta with you today. I come among you as a pilgrim to worship the Lord and to praise him for the wonders he has worked here. I come also as the Successor of Saint Peter to confirm you in the faith (cf. Lk 22:32) and to join you in prayer to the one living and true God, in the company of all the Saints, including the great Apostle of Malta, Saint Paul. Though my visit to your country is short, I pray that it will bear much fruit,” Pope Benedict said.

He mentioned the geo-political role Malta played in the past, especially the defense of Christianity.

“Indeed, Malta has much to contribute to questions as diverse as tolerance, reciprocity, immigration, and other issues crucial to the future of this continent. Your Nation should continue to stand up for the indissolubility of marriage as a natural institution as well as a sacramental one, and for the true nature of the family, just as it does for the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death and for the proper respect owed to religious freedom in ways that bring authentic integral development to individuals and society.

“Malta also has close links to the near East, not only in cultural and religious terms, but even linguistically. Allow me to encourage you to put this ensemble of skills and strengths to ever greater use so as to serve as a bridge of understanding between the peoples, cultures and religions which surround the Mediterranean. Much has still to be done to build relationships of genuine trust and fruitful dialogue, and Malta is well placed to hold out the hand of friendship to her neighbours to north and south, to east and west.

“I look forward to praying with you during my time in Malta and I wish, as a father and as a brother, to assure you of my affection for you and my eagerness to share this time with you in faith and friendship. With these thoughts, I entrust all of you to the protection of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu and your father in the faith, the great Apostle Paul.

“Il-Mulej ibierek lill-poplu kollu ta’ Malta u ta’ Għawdex! [God bless all the people of Malta and Gozo!],” the Pope said to conclude his speech.

Pope Benedict spoke after the introductory speech by the President of Malta Dr George Abela, who welcomed the Pope in the Island of St. Paul.

In his speech the President referred to what he sees as a war between christianity and secularism in Europe.

“Today, we face the wave of secularism which has as its starting point the strict separation of Church and State: a laicist model advocating that the State should be strictly separate from religion which is conceived as belonging exclusively to the private domain. This profane character which has developed in some European States is driving people to be laicist or even anti-Christian. However, as we all know or as we all should know, the moral foundations of a society as a whole, comprising believers, agnostics or atheists, are better served not with the falling away from religion but with the reinvigoration of the moral consciousness of the State.”

He then referred to what he sees as the role of Malta in this situation, with Malta’s own peculiar characteristics.

“Holy Father, we are proud as a nation to have inherited a Christian heritage which is at the core of our historical identity, even though we are not a confessional state. We too are experiencing, like all the rest of Europe, the phenomenon of multiculturalism, but this does not mean that we have to renounce to the beliefs which are our own. We still cherish a code of values, nourished by our Faith, such as the cardinal value of marriage and the family. We acknowledge that our Maltese family is undergoing rapid social changes and challenges, greatly influenced by current Western-world lifestyles and the ever-increasing secularization of the Maltese society. But the majority of our people still believe in monogamous marriage, based on the relationship between a man and a woman, open to the procreation of children, and consequently to the formation of a family as the bedrock of our nation.

“Holy Father, I am proud to say that all this forms part of our national identity and heritage. Your predecessor, the Venerable Pope John Paul II, during His visit in Malta on the 27th of May 1990 had exhorted us by proclaiming that: “Malta is called to contribute to the spiritual unity of the old Continent by offering her treasures of Christian faith and values. Europe needs Malta’s faithful witness too”.

“This is what we promise You today, that we continue upholding these values and our Faith which seemingly started off by mere chance but which we now cherish by our own choice as our firm belief. In the meantime, Holy Father, rest assured that we are welcoming You, as the successor of St. Peter, with extraordinary hospitality, “bi tjubija liema bħala” as our ancestors did with St.Paul.” concluded President Abela.

Following the arrival ceremony the Pope leaves the airport in his Popemobil to proceed to Valletta. On the way he passes through Luqa, Marsa, Blata l-Bajda, Floriana and into Valletta through City Gate. On Saturday evening he will unveil a plaque at the President’s Palace and salute the crowd in front of the Palace, especially thousands of children who will sing him a ‘happy birthday’ on the occasion of his birthday. He turned 83 on Friday.

Later on Saturday he will visit St. Paul’s Grotto in Rabat. He will spend the night at the Apostolic Nunciature in Rabat.


See how informative the local report was compared to this prefabricated story by the AP that says nothing about the arrival itself, but it does refer to the Pope's inflight remarks...

Pope arrives in Malta
by VICTOR L. SIMPSON


VALLETTA, Malta, April 17 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday began a brief pilgrimage to this heavily Catholic island, saying "our sins" have wounded the Church in Malta, where victims of sex abuse by clergy hope to meet with him.

The Pontiff is making his first foreign trip since the scandals erupted.

The overnight trip was long planned as a pilgrimage among the faithful to commemorate the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul's shipwreck, but it has since raised [media] expectations that the Pope would make a strong gesture to repair the damage of the worldwide abuse scandal.

Benedict did not take questions from reporters aboard the chartered Alitalia plane, which flew him from Rome to this Mediterranean archipelago.

Instead, in the five minutes in which he spoke to the media, he made what the Vatican called "reflections and considerations" on written questions submitted in advance by some media.

Speaking about the church on the island, Benedict said that "Christ loves Malta, even if the body (of the church) is wounded by our sins." But he made no direct references to the scandals rocking his papacy after allegations of wrongful handling of sex abuse cases have touched the pope himself.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters that the pope's remarks were "references" that could have "touched" on the scandals. [Did they really need Fr. Lombardi to explain that????]

The Pope's flight was one of the few to depart on Saturday from Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome, where many flights were canceled because of the no-fly zone in northern Italy and much of Europe due to the eruption of Iceland's volcano.

The Pontiff, who turned 83 on Friday, sounded hoarse as he began the overnight trip on Malta. He flies back to Rome on Sunday evening.

On the island, 10 men who testified that they were sexually molested by priests at an orphanage here during the 1980s and 1990s have asked to meet with Benedict so what they call a "hurtful chapter" in their lives can be closed.

The Maltese men who have spoken up say they were abused by four priests at a Catholic home for boys, alleging that if they resisted sexual advances they would be asked to leave the home, which was their only shelter.

Lombardi earlier in the week declined to confirm the Pope would meet with victims on this trip but didn't rule it out. Benedict's previous meetings with abuse victims during trips to the United States and Australia in 2008 were not announced in advance.

A few days earlier Benedict made his first allusion to the scandal since he issued a letter to Irish Catholics on March 20, when he rebuked Irish bishops for "grave errors of judgment" in handling clerical sex abuse and ordered an investigation into the Irish church but did not mention any Vatican responsibility, as victims have demanded.

On Thursday, the Pope said the faithful must acknowledge "what is wrong in our lives" and repent. [It's something any Pope, any priest, would say whether there was a 'scandal' or not!]

Recently, the Maltese church announced it had received 84 allegations of child abuse allegedly involving 45 priests over the past decade. Local bishops have apologized for the abuse.

The influence of the Catholic Church on the island is heavily felt in the European Union nation. Abortion and divorce are prohibited.

Strikingly for such a Catholic country, billboards announcing the visit bearing a large photo of Benedict have been defaced over the past few days, with one giving the German-born pope a Hitler-like mustache. [You would think dozens of billboards wre defaced - why can't he say 'Three billboards were defaced...']

Tradition holds that St. Paul stayed three months on Malta after being shipwrecked on the way to Rome.

Earlier in the day, the Holy See's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told Vatican Radio that Benedict is forging ahead with his papacy on "a sure route." The Vatican will mark the fifth anniversary of his election on Monday.