The Maltese malaise of selective moral blindness

What are we skinning? The Maltese malaise of selective moral blindness.

Why are we skinning it? Because a recent case has brought it to light, but more so because it will certainly not be the last.

Okay, so what exactly are you talking about here? Recent happenings at the island’s most iconic fishing village have once again borne out the island’s propensity towards refusing to acknowledge and condemn any shortcomings – moral or otherwise – by people we know, particularly pillars of the community who would otherwise have been in a position to dispense with favours.

Oh, this is about that priest. Nothing gets past you.

I’d like to think I’m perceptive enough to pick up on certain key cues. That would make you one step ahead of both authorities and parishioners in this particular case.

It’s almost as though putting a sizeable chunk of our social trust in a class of men living in enforced celibacy was ripe with pitfalls from the get go. Yes, but clearly there’s no trumping tradition.

Misappropriating funds for whatever purpose is a fairly secular crime, though. You’d think so, yes. Though it’s also a killer take on the whole ‘turning water into wine’ trick.

It’s a trick plenty of men and women NOT of the cloth have pulled regularly on this island though, most of them barely feeling the brunt of any consequence whatsoever. I guess a parish priest has little sway over the cogs in the economic machine, and makes for a far more appealing sacrificial lamb to be made an example of.

Scale back on the victim narrative though. Yes, I really should. Parishioners and online commentators are already holding the frontline on that one.

What makes the Maltese so incapable of condemning misdeeds, even when they’re staring them in the face? *shrug* It’s an insular society that isn’t too keen to throw its own under the bus.

Especially when its own is a generous and well-liked priest. Yes, such figures being a potent ‘glue’ that makes people feel good about their communities and their roles within it.

Do say: “While there are some positives to the Maltese tendency to forgive and forget as though we’re all part of the same family, that tendency can also very easily become an ideal springboard for institutional corruption and nepotism.”

Don’t say: “The ability to both forgive AND forget at regular intervals should garner praise as a great example of regularly-applied multi-tasking by the Maltese populace at large.”