James Debono
The Malta Environmental and Planning Authority has been called into action at St Paul’s Bay – not to clamp down on any illegal development in the area, but instead to protect the sensitive environment of the Apostle’s islets from an invasion of pilgrims led by Gozo Bishop Mgr Mario Grech.
The pilgrimage was organised by the Franciscan community to commemorate the Pauline year, declared by Pope Benedict XVI to mark the second millennium since the saint’s birth.
The issue was raised in parliament by Nationalist MP Censu Galea, who asked the Prime Minister why MEPA had taken the unprecedented step of stopping the pilgrimage.
In his reply the Prime Minister gave the impression that MEPA had not stopped any pilgrimage, saying that MEPA had in fact issued permits for four pilgrimages to St Paul’s islands.
But contacted by MaltaToday, Censu Galea confirmed that following a short notice from MEPA, a pilgrimage to St Paul’s islands had to be held on the mainland instead.
The parish priest of St Paul’s Bay also confirmed that MEPA had intervened to prevent the pilgrims from setting foot upon the rocky islets.
“They told us that no more than 50 people should gather on the islands,” Fr Joe Cilia told MaltaToday.
Cilia confirmed that a “reasonable agreement” was subsequently reached with the authorities and subsequently pilgrimages involving fewer than 50 people were to be organised.
Last year, MEPA had intervened to exterminate the islets’ rat population to protect a rare species of indigenous lizard.
But MEPA’s swift action to stop a pilgrimage contrast’s with the authority’s relative inaction faced with the environmental havoc and haphazard development which characterises St Paul’s Bay.
Ironically, an Azzopardi Fisheries tuna pen, controversially sanctioned by MEPA in 2002, is located just a few metres away from the same islands.

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt

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