From Mexico with love, Mark Montebello talks of life away from Malta

One thing is certain: the dissident Dominican friar Mark Montebello remains untamed in expressing views on controversial issues, as he insists that “divorce has got nothing to do with sin.”

Still in faraway Mexico, Montebello writes back in an email I send him on the recent comment by Judicial Vicar Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino to the judiciary to be ‘conscientious objectors’ and “desist” from collaborating on divorce proceedings:  Montebello points out graver matters on which judges and lawyers should be ‘conchies’.

“For instance, to perjury, to excessive fees, to police intimidation, to fines unsupported by means-tests, to breaches of human rights, to extreme prison sentences, and much more… Divorce has got nothing to do with sin. Sin is about tearing down God’s Kingdom,” the prisoners’ rights activist says.

Surely he must be feeling very much at home in northeast Mexico, where he finds a kindred spirit in Bishop of Saltillo, Don Raul Vera Lopez, known for standing up against the drug cartels of Monterrey. This is a region where a drug war rages, with dozens being found dead, murdered and decapitated (some headless), in the Mexican desert. These include journalists, politicians, priests, and those who stand up to the might of the drug warlords.

Montebello reassures those concerned for his personal safety: “Here I certainly did not stand up to anyone. I couldn’t have. My grasp of a very complex situation – where drug cartels, the military, government and big industrialists are more or less all part of the same clique – is very scanty… and anyway, as an observer, this was not what I came over to do.”

But Montebello feels honoured with the acquaintance of “some stalwart people, both clerical and lay; male and female – who boldly do stand up to corruption and violence…  but that was as far as my exposure to danger came.”

Montebello was sent to Mexico after being summoned to Rome for a meeting with the head of the Dominican Order, Fr Carlos Aspiroz Costa, in the wake of some comments he wrote in the newspapers. It had been reported that Archbishop Paul Cremona insisted the Dominican Order take steps against Fr Montebello, following articles he wrote about divorce and paedophilia, as well his defence of Nigerian Monday Iseki, who was charged with resisting arrest.

But he is very categorical when I ask him directly whether he feels that he has been  “exiled” from Malta.

“This has never been an exile. It is a learning experience in a different part of the Church and of the Dominican Order”.

Before leaving Malta, Montebello said his stay in Mexico would neither be a holiday break, nor missionary work. What is it then? “It is an intense learning experience… Essentially, what I was sent here to do is to comprehend better where I want to be going, both intellectually and pastorally, and I think that, in this sense, this experience is being quite beneficial”.

And he seems to be enjoying sharing the Mexicans’ way of life, having his “fair share of tequilas and tortillas.”

“After all, I certainly did not want to let my people down and be an impolite guest.”

During the past weeks he has been visiting centres where Dominican friars carry out pastoral work in various parts of the country. “My endeavour is to learn and understand, hands on, how, as a Christian community, they relate to different material conditions and social realities. Of course, Mexico is no Malta. However, certain basic dynamics of preaching and pastoral work might be useful.”

Useful also in the sense that Latin America remains fertile ground for liberation theology – the church’s adaptation of the teachings of Vatican II – in a continent fraught with social and political injustice. “This reading continues up to this day. Of course, not in the same way that it has been done fifty or forty years ago. However, its basic principles are the same and, furthermore, they pertain to the whole Church. Don Raul Vera Lopez is just one of many cases in point,” Montebello writes.

Montebello finds inspiration in Don Raul Vera Lopez, the bishop of Saltillo, who stands out as an outspoken champion of human rights and who was himself transferred from the south of Mexico after denouncing right-wing paramilitary groups in the Chaipas region and standing up for the human rights of the indigenous population.

But despite being transferred, he quickly adopted himself to the new realities around him: to denounce local politicians in collusion with organised crime.

Montebello compares Vera Lopez to Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran bishop murdered by right-wing death squads after denouncing human rights abuses in his sermons.

“It’s been a great honour to live with him and a greater privilege to be considered a friend by such an outstanding Dominican. Sharing Don Raul’s private and pastoral life for a few weeks, and conversing with him interminably, has taught me so much. This alone would have made this visit valuable, memorable and worthwhile.”

But what strikes him most about Vera Lopez is a vision of the church which has been shaped by his experience with the Mayan indigenous population in Chiapas.

Mexico’s war on drugs

Montebello is sceptical that the war on drugs currently conducted by the Mexican government can be won. “It must be said that this is not an outright ‘war on drugs’ but rather a war which pins down a few drug cartels while benefiting others. There are currently at least eight huge cartels here in Mexico which have a great influence on trade routes, scores of municipalities, commerce and politics.”

He also contends that President Felipe Calderón, who hails from a right-wing conservative party, could well be waging this war to divert public attention from other crucial internal political problems, such as rampant government corruption, unsustainable privatisation, deforestation, extensive weaponry infiltration (mostly from the USA), unemployment, and unavailability of higher education.

“Furthermore, with the excuse of the war Calderón employed tens of thousands of military personnel on the streets of major cities, and keeps a vigorous control on access to information.”

He describes the so-called ‘war on drugs’ as  “an obnoxious strategic part of an appalling political situation” in a country where the drug cartels thrive on high rates of unemployment (30%), poverty (25%) and inflation (5%).

Montebello has refrained from expressing himself publicly in Mexico. “It would have been utterly presumptuous on my part to do so.”

He also notes one big difference with Malta in the sense that while the Catholic Church in Mexico has four cardinals, 24 archbishops, 132 bishops and 90 dioceses, Malta, of course, has no cardinal, one archbishop and three bishops.

“With a compliment of 160 high-ranking prelates (compared to Malta’s four), it is understandable that the enormous multiplicity of opinions (from far-right to far-left) is simply staggering. In Malta diversity is virtually nonexistent. Nevertheless, in very general terms one might say that here, contrary to Malta, no dichotomy exists between social life and religious practice”.

Does he feel frustrated at not being able to participate in the debate on important issues in Malta?

“Some news gets to me. However, I really do not feel any frustration by not being there to share the juice. It is currently more important for me to concentrate on my experience and my learning. There will be time enough to dance.”

Divorce in Malta

In Malta, the debate on divorce seems heading towards a referendum. But the Dominican friar disagrees.

“First, because it will surely become appallingly politicised. Secondly, because minority issues should never be decided on the basis of a majority of votes. Thirdly, because the whole issue will be pointlessly traumatising.”

Neither would he have signed the position paper on divorce drawn up by seven prominent priests and theologians, ranging from Pro Vicar Anton Gouder to Father Peter Serracino Inglott, which leaves Catholics free to vote for divorce as long as they have a “formed and informed conscience?”

“As it stands, the statement is ambiguous, to say the least. Substitute ‘divorce’ with ‘forced sterilisation’ or – to parody one of the Nuremberg Laws – with ‘the Protection of Maltese Blood and Maltese Honour’, and no substantial difference to the statement will be made! Very telling, no?”

Fr Mark still does not give a date when asked when he will be returning to Malta –limiting himself to saying that he will return in “due course” but he is sure of one thing.

“I will bring with me a greater love for the Church and for the people of God.” But how prepared will the church be to receive all this love?

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