Interview • January 11 2004

Keeping the faith

He believes a new PN leader should reshuffle the cabinet within six months of appointment. He is saddened by the current spate of redundancies. He argues it is up to Malta to grab the EU’s opportunities and he believes the Vatican will not accept the Archbishop’s resignation. Fr Joe Inguanez, sociologist, is interviewed by Kurt Sansone

When I meet Fr Joe Inguanez at his office in Floriana, I find him at his desk ruffling some papers. There is a power cut and his laptop battery is not fully charged. Malta 2004, I think to myself.
We move into a quieter office. As of 1 May Malta will officially be part of the European Union and I ask Fr Inguanez, a sociologist and director at the church’s research institute (Discern), what will really change.
He smiles. "This question reminds me of the optimism shown by people at the turn of the millennium when they believed the faithful would change. Nothing of the sort happened. The reality is that few things would change after 1 May. We will automatically become citizens of the European Union and this would most certainly open up new possibilities but nothing will happen on its own. This is a question that the politicians and the decision makers of this country have to answer. Economically few things will change if the country does not strive to grab the opportunities. I am not saying this because I am a eurosceptic. On the contrary, I’m anything but a eurosceptic, but I question whether as a country we are prepared to rise to the occasion. If we remain a country with parochial politics we will suffer."
Fr Inguanez is worried about the predicament of the workers who have lost their job as a result of the redundancies at VF this week. But he is fully aware that the textile industry has been very volatile since the sixties. What worries him is that little is being done to attract new foreign investment.
"There is no aggressive campaign to attract international investors to come to Malta, or if an effort is being done, the people are not seeing it. This creates pessimism. If there is a dynamic effort to attract foreign investors and this is visible, things will be better. But until now we have only seen missions to Brussels. I would have expected that soon after the decision taken in the election that laid to rest the EU issue, the country would have had an array of missions in different countries to attract foreign investment under the pretext that we are now part of the EU single market."
And the disappointment does not stop here. Fr Inguanez believes it is worrying that another important pillar of the country’s economy, tourism, is facing serious problems. "We have a big problem when it comes to what we are offering as a country. Despite various reports and commissions we still have a problem of clearly identifying the general direction of the tourism industry."
He insists that with problems in both manufacturing and tourism it is only natural that fear of unemployment prevails.
Government has repeatedly called for consensus to solve perennial problems that cannot be ignored anymore. Is consensus possible?
Fr Inguanez smiles and says it is only possible if the political parties change their methods. "They have to agree not to engage solely in adversarial politics but also consensual politics. In this way they would agree that certain national issues need tackling and the debate will focus on how a problem will be solved. Unfortunately the debate that goes on in public between the political parties is a continuous battle to win votes. This attitude creates a negative environment. Consensus is possible if for one moment we forget that another election is due in five years’ time."
A call for consensus can only be credible to the extent of the credibility of the person making it. I ask Fr Inguanez whether the sense of betrayal people feel after the election because of broken promises will make it possible for consensus to be reached.
"If people expect political parties to say bad things before an election it is next to impossible. There was one person, Dom Mintoff, who used to talk of tightening the belt and tough measures before an election, but he is more unique than rare. However, if government wants to be credible in this reform it has to show that in its operations there is no waste. It must also ensure that people are not fed a perception of waste. I have no problem with a prime minister having an official car reflecting his status even if it costs Lm70,000. But this was perceived by the man in the street as waste. It is obvious people will question why so much money was spent on a car when the Christmas parties, costing a few hundreds of liri, were cancelled. It created a perception of waste."
Furthermore, he insists many people are not convinced that all income tax and VAT due is being collected. "The perception, which I think is right, is that those evading tax are not salaried workers but the professional classes, self-employed and big business. If government is not going to gain credibility on these issues it will be difficult to reach consensus on social welfare reform."
It is widely expected that the wind of change this year will also hit the Nationalist Party as Prime Minister Fenech Adami decides to call it a day. But substituting the longest serving party leader in Europe is not going to be an easy task and Fr Inguanez believes the difficulty is compounded by the fact that the new leader would have to assume power at a time when the PN is in government.
"When Fenech Adami was appointed leader his party was in opposition, which made it easier for him to rally people around him. The new leader would have to immediately get down to business and deliver. I believe that the first test for the new leader would be whether he has the courage to make a cabinet reshuffle. If within six months of being appointed, the new prime minister does not change the cabinet, irrespective of whether the present cabinet is good or bad, it means that he will not be leaving his mark on the country. A new leader implies change and new people are a characteristic of change."
Of the three possible successors being mentioned – Lawrence Gonzi, John Dalli and Austin Gatt – Fr Inguanez sees Lawrence Gonzi as the person more ideologically in line with Fenech Adami. "This does not mean that others don’t have a chance but they would have to be careful not to let the party move to the political right," he says.
Fr Inguanez argues that the differences between the three persons are not only ideological but also personality differences. "The issue will not remain solely one of ideas but also a question of how to handle issues and problems. And it is clear from the three people you mentioned that they handle things extremely differently from each other based on their performance as ministers."
The PN leadership race will finally shift the focus from the inner turbulence of the Labour Party. I ask Fr Inguanez for his assessment on the changes that have occurred in Labour. "I don’t believe the Labour leader will change, but what preoccupies me is that on the EU issue, a number of parliamentarians are simply keeping their mouth shut. They are not showing the same enthusiasm being shown by the leadership to work within the new reality of EU membership. Some members do not speak enthusiastically about the EU and when they get the chance to have a go at membership they take it. There will not be another policy change because the leadership is strong on the issue but the situation can give rise to a waste of unnecessary energy within the party structures. There are still many Labourites who are not convinced that the new strategy adopted by the party vis-à-vis EU membership is the correct one."
It is not only the political arena that needs to change to embrace new realities but also the Church. Fr Inguanez concurs and insists the Church needs to undergo radical change irrespective of what is happening around it. He explains: "A big problem facing the church is whether its members understand the nature of their faith and their church. It is a big challenge and it is not being ‘properly’ addressed. The synod tried to give an answer but it is clear that for many people the synod just flew over their heads. It will not have an impact on the lives of the majority of Maltese Catholics. Indeed, in a survey conducted by Discern less than a quarter of the Maltese population know what the synod was. The church needs much more than fresh documents!"
Fr Inguanez raises the issue of faith. "Although most say they believe, in practice they don’t. In various surveys carried out over the years people say they don’t attend church because the homily is boring. I think this is only a superficial understanding of the situation. People don’t understand the church ritual as a whole. For many people the ritual is meaningless because to understand it you have to be a mini-theologian. This means that the liturgy, which is supposed to represent the peak of a Catholic’s faith, is a moment which few people can understand. It is conducted in a language incomprehensible by the lay person, in a style that little reflects modern-day trends. We say that we changed the rituals related to the sacraments. The changes were minimal and on the contrary, today we face the danger of returning to ancient liturgical practices with particular strong groups in the church that wallow in liturgical archaeologisms."
And change does not simply fall from the sky. Just like in politics it comes by changing people. Fr Inguanez agrees. "I believe there has to be a change in the leadership of the Maltese church and this is something, which, I believe will not happen."
I ask him to explain what he means. With a telling smile on his face he won’t give details. "This is a conclusion I have reached one and a half years ago. Archbishop Mercieca’s resignation will not be accepted by the Vatican."
Back to the argument of change and I suggest that the Church has no coherent policy to promote change. Many efforts are individual and uncoordinated. Fr Inguanez agrees and suggests that what is ‘alive’ in the church can be found in the different religious groups irrespective of whether one agrees with them or not.
"This strength is coming from the fact that they are still ‘sectarian’. Once they become institutionalised the enthusiasm will be lost or else they will clash with the official institution."
Last year was earth shattering for the church in Malta with the first paedophile cases involving priests making it to Court. Fr Inguanez says that the Discern survey revealed that people did not lose their trust in the clergy but, he insists, people are ready to trust depending on who the priest is.
"This is a radical shift that has been coming for years. People respect the priest not because of his status but on personal criteria. Relationships are built on mutual trust. Trust is no longer ascribed but achieved," he says.
When I raise the issue of separated people, Fr Inguanez argues that everybody should feel accepted but if the church abides by certain ethical principles one cannot expect the church to bend its principles to suit all situations.
However, he raises other issues that should be of concern. "It is the societal obsession with sex that consistently causes controversy about the Church’s beliefs and attitudes but I feel there are other issues the church should be criticised about for not speaking out. Something we never talk about is ethics in business. Certain businessmen should feel much more uncomfortable entering church than a prostitute. But because we have equated ethics with sex, the prevalent philosophy argues that business is business… and the law of the market is supreme!"