It looks like the island of Gozo has to contend with a band club unhappy at the appointment of their new archpriest at the Gozo Cathedral.
But this is unlike any other simple appointment in the Ecclesiastical ranks. It’s a bold move by recently-appointed Bishop Mario Grech to put his foot down over the “festa/partiti” rivalry between Victoria’s Cathedral and St George parish band clubs – a feud over thetraditional Good Friday procession, which has involved the parishes’ former archpriests and band clubs.
Yesterday, the websites of the Gozitan capital’s two rival band clubs, the Leone and La Stella from the Cathedral and Basilica respectively, spelt it out clearly. While the Stella website proudly displayed the image of its new archpriest, the Leone was promoting its upcoming Giuseppe Verdi production for October.
On the day of the appointment of their new archpriest, the Leone band club issued a heavily worded statement deploring the “arbitrary and imposing” manner in which former archpriest Fr Joe Vella Gauci had been replaced, apparently spurning a 40-year tradition of being consulted by the Ecclesiastical authorities before any such appointment.
But Bishop Grech’s appointment is indeed a declaration of authority, warning the Leone band club that Gozo’s shepherd needs no consultation from a philharmonic society over the spiritual leader of a small parish.
And his choice of two “outsiders” to the Gozitan capital’s rival parishes has sent a clear message of who is calling the shots in the bitter feud over the Good Friday procession, held by the two parishes on an alternating basis.
In 2005, Grech’s predecessor Bishop Nikol Cauchi had agreed to allow the Basilica parish to hold its procession on the morning of Good Friday instead of its traditional Maundy Thursday activity. It was a controversial decision given that, as was the tradition to alternate every year between the two parishes, the Cathedral was expected to hold its own pageant in the evening.
Being a novel idea, Bishop Cauchi acquiesced, noting that the Cathedral parish could find the idea appealing and would want to do the same in 2006 when it would have been its turn to hold its procession other than on Good Friday.
But after it was learnt that the Basilica would have its procession moved to the morning of Good Friday, the Leone Band, apparently in consultation with the Cathedral parish, filed for a police permit to hold band marches at the same time and along the same streets the Good Friday procession would pass through. In the end, the Commissioner of Police decided to withhold both permits to quell the ensuing feud.
So today the new Bishop of Gozo is firmly sending a message not to have spiritual matters demoted by band club rivalries, a sense he conveyed in his homily at the Sannat parish church last Wednesday, in which he alluded to children choosing to either play or spoil the fun for the others. In short, the rules will have to be followed and Grech is laying down the law.
As a man whose family enjoys connections to the “Ta’ Ljun”, as the Leone society is known, his decision to appoint an outsider to the parish was certainly forthright. Mgr Guzeppi Attard, 61, the new archpriest for the Gozo Cathedral is brother to Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono and is from Nadur. Mgr Paul Cardona, 54, the new archpriest at St George’s Basilica, is from Sannat. Since the 1970s, both have been appointed to parishes in Rome – outsiders in almost every sense, apparently suited to go beyond the traditional rivalry of the two parishes.
So it’s a clear break with tradition for Gozo’s new bishop, who now faces an unhappy crew of Leone supporters pledging their undying loyalty to former archpriest Mgr Vella Gauci. The band club is even telling its parishioners to mount their own show of civil disapproval for the new appointment. Today, they will be meeting their supporters and parishioners for an urgent appraisal of the situation.
Mgr Vella Gauci, on the other hand, has been appointed liaison officer between the Gozo diocese and the church commission dealing with European-Maltese episcopal affairs: a step up the ladder, some would say.
But other Gozitan parishioners have expressed relief at the new appointment, annoyed by the feud between the two societies and supportive of Bishop Grech’s emphasis on spiritual matters rather than who gets to organise the Good Friday procession. To the Leone supporters, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but one that Bishop Grech knows is ultimately good for the soul.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt