Malta's mighty contribution to the free world
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
14 Nov 2004
Everyone in Malta has a cousin in Australia. But they are reluctant to concede that there are more people with Maltese blood in Australia than at home!
Malta has a proud and heroic history, with much suffering. A small island between Sicily and North Africa, all the rulers of the Mediterranean have been there. The Carthaginians and Romans, the Moslems and the Knights of Malta, the French and the English have come and gone, left their mark. One other factor though has been constant for 1700 years and more; the Catholic faith.
One way to provoke real trouble is to suggest that St. Paul was not shipwrecked on Malta, did not actually visit the island! You can visit today the cave where legend has it that he was imprisoned. Such sites have been made sacred by the prayers of generations of pilgrims; in this case for over 1500 years, and to visit them is often moving.
The Maltese have struggled heroically for faith and freedom on a couple of occasions.
In the 16th century the Ottoman Turks wanted to capture the island and use it as a base to invade Sicily, just as the Allies did in the Second World War. 700 Knights of St. John with 9000 men repulsed an attack by the Sultan who sent 200 ships and 40,000 men. Ernle Bradford’s book “The Great Siege” is an accurate and marvellous tale of high adventure, of an almost miraculous victory in 1565.
Queen Elizabeth I of England was no friend of the Catholics, but she ordered Protestant thanksgiving services in England for this victory, because she realised how vital for Western security Malta then was.
During the Second World War under the British the Maltese endured ferocious bombings by the Germans during a siege from June 1940 until August 15th, 1942. The War was going badly, Rommel had retaken Tobruk and the Allies had been pushed back to Alamein. Montgomery’s victories in North Africa lay in the future. Malta was vital to supplies, as a safe harbour, and for the morale of the Free World. But it was running out of everything.
A huge supply convoy defended by the largest fleet in the Mediterranean since the great Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571 set out from Britain. Only 5 out of 14 supply ships reached Grand Harbour with food, fuel and ammunition. But it was enough.
A priest friend of mine recounted how his family lived in an underground cemetery during the siege, sleeping in the niches where the dead had been buried. His childhood was taken from him, he said, but he survived. It was for all this that Malta received the George Cross.
Recently I was on this beautiful island of Churches, where 65% of the people go to Sunday Mass, for an international gathering of priests. About 1000 came for the week.
It was a good time, full of good humour, prayer and camaraderie. It reminded me forcibly of the debt the Catholic community owes to its celibate priests and of the mighty contribution they make to societies throughout the world.
