“The Government and its institutions are obligated to always act in favour of the common good,” the Church in Gozo has said.

The Church in Gozo, in a statement on Wednesday, said it feels that a number of development decisions that have been taken recently in Gozo, including the one in the area of the Ggantija Temples, “are of very serious concern, both in themselves, but perhaps more so in the message they deliver.”

It stated that, “beyond technicalities and legalisms, whoever is entrusted with the leadership of the country has the inalienable duty to protect the weakest people and the common good over individual interests, and to ensure that justice in the distribution of wealth is applied both to the citizens of today and to future generations. Only then can we be a just society.”

The Church in Gozo stressed that the Government has the obligation to ensure that those who are entrusted with the administration of the various sectors in the country “are doing so in accordance with the law and the regulations that they themselves are called to apply.”

“It is not acceptable that some of them make decisions and maintain arguments that are factually incorrect,” the Church in Gozo said. “It is not enough that whoever leads and decides is not breaking the law; there are many circumstances and deeds that although they may not be breaking the law, they still know how to be ethically and morally incorrect and unjust.”

“It is essential that during a public hearing on public decisions, all parties are given the opportunity to express themselves freely and adequately,” it said.

The Church in Gozo went on to say that the Government should consider suspending the procedure, adopted at the time of Covid-19, of hearing online planning applications, “and ensure that if some parties are being censored, the boards return to practice of pre-Covid, i.e. physical hearing, unless this risk is addressed to everyone’s satisfaction.”“The public is increasingly losing confidence in those who are obliged to protect the patrimony and the common good. We encourage all authorities – not just the Planning Authority – to serve the purpose for which they were founded and to protect those they are obliged to protect, especially the weakest and voiceless,” the Church in Gozo said.

It encouraged the employees and officers of any entity in the authority “not to do anything that can be considered or understood as pressure to make a profit from the position one occupies.”

The Church in Gozo warned that, “it is dangerous that everything seems to have a price in money and that in our society the sense of value of the common good that goes beyond money and the market has been lost.”

It said that “when he was among us, Pope Francis reminded us that the environment “must be protected from insatiable greed, from the race for money and from building speculation, which compromise not only the landscape, but the future” (Speech at the President’s Palace, 2 April 2022).”

“We warn about the impact that what is happening has on the development of the character of our young people and children, who are constantly observing and being shaped by the examples they see around them,” the Church in Gozo said.

It stated that, “there are many people among us who cherish and work voluntarily and disinterestedly in favour of the historical and natural heritage of our country. It is not fair that instead of being valued, their time is wasted in activism so that the decisions and actions taken are in favour of the common good.”

“The challenge that our island has in order to continue to be the home of a growing population requires a view that puts the human being and not the money at the centre of attention,” the Church in Gozo said.

It warned that, “we cannot continue to throw away the common good of today and the future, to earn every possible euro today, at a price for the economy and the society of Gozo of the future.”

The natural, historical and cultural environment is everyone’s heritage and responsibility. The wealth of Gozo today and in the future, and all our love for this island, they ask us to be wiser in our choices, the Church in Gozo said.

The question of Pope Francis to the powerful applies to all of us: “What would induce anyone, at this stage, to hold on to power, only to be remembered for their inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so?” (Laudate Deum, 60).

Photos: Diocese of Gozo/Daniel Cilia

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