Jesuits find little solace in U Group claims of noise reduction

Jesuit provincial Fr Patrick Magro has found no joy in claims by the developers of a shooting range outside the silent retreat house of Mount St Joseph, that noise technology will reduce the impact of the range on its surrounding area.

The Jesuits are protesting the siting of a shooting range by Russian entrepreneurs U Group, at the former military barracks of Busbesija in the limits of Mosta. The shooting range will abut on the Jesuits’ silent retreat house.

“We operate Mount Saint Joseph at a loss,” Magro said. “We do not mind subsidizing this place because our interest is the interest and wellbeing of the thousands who visit our retreat house. We appeal to U Group to work with the government to find an alternative location that does not disturb neighbouring residents whilst also respecting the natural environment.”

In comments to MaltaToday, U Group’s executive director Anastasia Budykho – who also serves as representative for the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR) in Malta – insisted that “new technologies exist and special sound reduction walls exist. Different systems are used and can reduce noise up to 95% of the sound generated in shooting ranges.”

Budykho and her aides, members of Malta’s shooting societies, described a letter of intimidation and a bullet sent by post to the Jesuits as “ridiculous, horrible and nasty.

“We have nothing to do with that issue,” Budykho said.

On his part, Jesuit provincial Patrick Magro said while he appreciated U Group’s condemnation of the threat, he was far from convinced that noise generated from the range would be silenced.

“On the contrary, it confirmed what has been our concern all along that the noise generated by the firearms cannot be fully contained within the six shooting ranges proposed. This is cause for serious concern for us since people come to retreat house to find silence and not hear firearm noise.

“Budykho brushes aside concerns of noise, safety, ecology and traffic. This is understandable coming from the developer who has manifest commercial interests.” 

Magro said Mount St Joseph retreat house has offered therapeutic silence to the Maltese nation for fifty years. “We are baffled by Budykho’s claim that U Group has always been socially conscious, when they are trying to choose a site for their shooting range complex that is next door to a long-established institution that has offered care and support through its silent atmosphere to countless thousands, thus putting the very reason for its existence under threat.”