Catholic and Latin: What Does it Mean?

On the Granaries last Wednesday, Dr. Delia was mainly concerned with flaunting his Nationalist credentials and consolidating his position among the core of the party supporters. Considering the way the MPs are carrying on in his regard - it beggars belief that, even now that the members have spoken, a way to ensure his becoming Leader of the Opposition has not been found - one cannot blame him. Hence the references to traditional Nationalist symbols and elements of historical identity, to the halcyon days of thirty years ago strongly associated - not to say identified - with the hallowed name of Eddie Fenech Adami. Hence also the emotive presence and support of George Borg Olivier's son. The message was clear: I am the natural successor, the organic continuation of these icons; if real Nationalists respect them they should respect me.

On another level, however, the speech was also the verbal outline of the fundamentals of his creed, prominent among which is the defence of traditional human values, particularly human life. Delia laid down the gauntlet: his PN will be the bulwark against the onslaught of materialistic liberalism threatening to destroy the fabric of Maltese society as we know it. The liberal tsunami, Delia’s message was, is spearheaded by Muscat's political force masquerading as a coalition of Progressivi and Moderati, which in reality represents the views and interests of a collection of latter-day liberal Vandals bent on destroying the city and installing their own nefarious way of life in which drugs are freely available and the female (and male) body is commodified, and where life itself may be put under threat. The neo-Vandals have deviously manipulated their guileless moderate allies into supporting their heathen agenda by dazzling them into a state of quasi-blindness through the creation of an apparently prosperous society. However, this seeming affluence - so Delia seems to be saying -  masks serious fissures in the societal monolith as represented by considerable pockets of people who are not receiving their share of the wealth being generated and are suffering as a result.

Delia is hinting at the alternative he has to offer: a society where real Maltese, true-blood descendants of the proud Kattoliċi and Latini of the 1930s live in a “genuinely’’ Maltese society based on the traditional values. As one would expect, the vision comes with hints of all the perks: a pristine environment, top-notch traffic management, and most importantly of all, social justice: no more low-paid workers in unstable employment, no more pensioners and single-parent families struggling to make ends meet. He only very briefly mentioned Maltese citizenship, but it is strongly believed that he is quite vehemently opposed to its sale – it dovetails perfectly with what he hinted his vision for Malta is.

Not bad, actually, for a vision, but the insistence on the Kattoliċi/Latini element – in so far as it really represents his views – provokes reflections and raises questions. Is it truly a harking back to a time when Malta was homogeneously Catholic and Latin? Catholic, Latin Malta does not mean simply a population with determined ethnic characteristics; it is practically a metaphor for a society where there was order, family cohesion was the norm, serious crime was uncommon (or, at least, certainly less than it is now) and suicide was practically unknown. All to the good. 

However, it also evokes images of an era where men ruled the roost, where not to conform meant to be ostracised, where difference amounted to God-ordained inferiority, where the lower classes stood in line, where the notion of rights was alien to most, where poverty prevailed. Present-day Malta with its 40% Sunday mass attendance, its tens of thousands of immigrants, its hundreds of Maltese–born women married to Muslims and walking openly in Muslim garb, its 27% of births occurring out of wedlock, its recognised homosexual couples mingling more or less unselfconsciously in the crowd and melting in the background is so far removed from the Catholic and Latin Malta of the 1930s - when il-Gross penned the lyrics of the Innu tal-Partit Nazzjonalista where the phrase is featured - that to call it Catholic and Latin seems to be  deliberately and bizarrely eccentric.

Perhaps Dr. Delia only plucked the phrase from the Nationalist anthem because he knew it was bound to resonate with the party rank and file whose loyalty he needs to consolidate his shaky position, and did not mean much by it. Alternatively, he perhaps does hanker after a time when everything seems so much less complicated and God and predictability made for a stress-free life – unless you happened to be one of the many dirt-poor citizens worried about where the next meal was coming from. Those who are weighing him up and have to decide whether he is worth investing their vote in need to know more about his political beliefs and vision. Does he believe in a return the values which ruled decades ago? Party leaders may blather about listening to the people and translating their needs and concerns into policies, but the truth is the leader’s own views are an essential element in the party’s vision and proposals and - as the experience of the past four years has forcefully shown us – in what will actually be implemented when power is attained. 

Once the matter of that blessed parliamentary seat is sorted out, we should get another glimpse of the new PN leader’s views. Perhaps it will be on Xarabank, but certainly his response to the Budget Speech should yield important clues about the ideological direction his Party will be following. The 36,000 vote difference notwithstanding, the people need to know what Adrian Delia truly believes in.