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The Maltese Herald

Betraying your brother on national television to rewrite history: Charles Tabone on Pawlu Cremona

โ€”

by

Mark Camilleri
in

Rverend Charles Tabone, a Dominican like the previous Archbishop Pawlu Cremona was on the public broadcaster last week to deny “press reports” that the Archbishop was pressured to resign in a coup. He said that Archbishop Paul Cremona was never pressured to resign but was instead asked to resign only after he had mental health issues. I have uploaded the clip below.

Charles Tabone thinks that he can betray his brother and rewrite history just because he wears a godly robe. Archbishop Paul Cremona was pressured to resign in a very forceful coup that was lead by Joe Borg and Rene Camilleri, with Rene Camilleri, back then being the Archbishop’s personal consultant. The betrayal and pressure was explicit and in his face. He was pressured to resign and his colleagues abandoned him. Depression took over him after this betrayal, and word soon spread in Rome that he was unfit to serve in office. Charles Scicluna, then an official serving the Pope, was very reluctant to leave the Vatican but was ultimately transferred to Malta as a replacement for Archbishop Paul Cremona.

To twist history in such a detrimental way to your deceased brother is, I suppose, very sinful, but I’m not giving religious advice to the Dominican Reverend. I would advise him however that Malta is no longer in the 1960s and the Maltese are no longer that stupid.

Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona was given a State Funeral. He was remembered for his kindness which was abused as a liability by his detractors who wanted an Archbishop that took stronger positions against a Labour government that was pushing liberal reforms. The coup against him took a toll on his mental health, and now, that he is dead, they want to re-write history to come out in the clear. Death often brings the worst in some people.

Note, that I am not judging the actions taken back then by Joe Borg, Rene Camilleri and their comrades-in-arms. This is just history. Had I been a conservative cleric, even I would have preferred a new Archbishop that would take stronger positions against the Labour government. Archbishop Charles Scicluna did indeed take a harder stance against the Labour government after his appointment to his new role. However, the irony is that today, he has become Labour’s little puppet after the Curia was granted several lucrative land-purchase agreements as the Church offloads its real estate portfolio, not to mention the funding for the Church schools.

Time for a new cleric-coup, maybe?

 

Comments

8 responses to “Betraying your brother on national television to rewrite history: Charles Tabone on Pawlu Cremona”

  1. M.Galea avatar
    M.Galea

    Gie lura jigbor giehu!

    Reply
  2. Johanna Gatt avatar
    Johanna Gatt

    At last! Someone is saying things as they are… And as they have been.

    Reply
  3. Patricia Hall avatar
    Patricia Hall

    Didnโ€™t father Charles Tabone state the exact opposite on the day of the funeral? I believe for correctness sake, his previous clip in the
    Times of Malta, should have also been included. I believe itโ€™s more a question of cohesion rather than a betrayal.

    Reply
  4. Steve magri avatar
    Steve magri

    The only way to deal with people like joe borg and Rene Camilleri was to remove them and put them on a desk in a corridor. Leaders have to be ruthless

    Reply
  5. Carmelo Borg avatar
    Carmelo Borg

    Fr Charles inhobb nisimak IMMA din id darba NAHSEB li zbaljat.
    NAHSEB li ikkumentajt FUQ mejjet frisk GHANDU LANQAS indifen.
    NAHSEB li KIEKU kont jien KONT inzomm KOLLOX SIGRIET TA BEJN ZEWG IHBIEB U MA NIKXEX XEJN GHALA L ISQOF IRRIZEJNA.
    NAHSEB KIEKU GHADU HAJ DAN IL QADDIS (INFONDO) MA KIENX JIEHU PJACIR. ISSA FATHER CHARLES GHALXEN GEJ TIPPROVA TBENGILA GHAX META XI HAGA TOHROG MIL FOMM IDDUM ZMIEN BIEX TINTESA
    BERIKINI FATHER

    Reply
  6. Carmel Callus avatar
    Carmel Callus

    Naฤงseb li Patri Tabone gฤงadu qed jipprova jpattiha lill-PN talli, meta kienu fil-Gvern, ma kinux gฤงamluh professur!

    Reply
  7. Banquo avatar
    Banquo

    Seems to me like you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Reverend Charles Tabone is saying Paul Cremona was gently nudged towards the edge and then he decided to jump. You are saying he was aggressively pushed over the precipice. You are effectively arguing about the degree of hostility shown towards Archbishop Cremona while both agreeing that he was publicly pressured into leaving his post and that this led to deteriorating mental health.

    Betrayal and sin? Sorry, but I’m not seeing it. As is normal in these situations, there is both shoving from foes but also an attempt to be the author of one’s own fate. Did Joe Biden resign from the 2024 presidential candidacy of the United States of his own free will or was he forced to do so? Different people will remember the story in slightly different ways, depending on where they were standing, what their perception of the world is and what inside knowledge they had about what was happening.

    No doubt some biographer will uncover evidence that leans one way or another and try to get some media attention out of it. In the end, it still won’t matter all that much. Biden resigned following public pressure. Kamala Harris took over his campaign. Their opponent Donald Trump won the election.

    What is more interesting to debate is whether pressuring the Church to fight liberal reforms was a good idea at all (ironically, the idea you said you will not judge). Where has this led the Church? Pews are emptier than ever, there are practically no new priests taking over the job of those who die or retire, and most Maltese are perfectly at peace with divorce and gay marriage. The Church lost the war.

    How smarter, therefore, would it have been had the pressure been for the Church to bless same-sex couples, for women to become priests, for a debate about married priests, for a true reckoning about child-sex abuse, and to fight corruption if one is to fight anything at all? Paul Cremona is now dead and the Church the critics who forced him out have fostered seems more out of touch with ordinary people’s lives than ever.

    There are lots of good people out there who are trying to make the best out of difficult situations but the Church still judges them for it, and there are lots of other good people who could contribute to society through the Church’s structures but are barred from doing so because of their gender or marital status. Paul Cremona may have been kind, but the Church is still not kind enough, and, so, young people will look elsewhere for solace and increasingly shun this institution which seems to be stuck in a bygone era. As you said, this is not the 1960s anymore and people have their own ideas, but has the Church even realised?

    In retrospect, I think we can say that, with Paul Cremona, the wrong battle was fought and bad results were achieved, same as the battle with Joe Biden. Seeing that those bad results still affect people’s lives today, discussing how ruthless the internal coup was is a purely academic exercise of very little significance.

    Reply
  8. Dom avatar
    Dom

    Ghalijha l-isqof Pawlu Cremona kien qaddis u meta tkun miexi f ‘triq is-sewwa sa sib min ifixlek u hekk sab min ifiexklu.Hekk morru lura meta kien hemm Mon.Gonzi hadd ma kien iwaqfu milli jaqsam poplu u familji mhux nitkellem politiku ghax ma nara ebda partit.Imma li ghandek kap ta knisja imzejjed b kull Don karizma tjubija proffesur u ta ‘konviciment bhal dak ma nistax nifhem kif ghaduh min xiex ghaduh mhux ta b xejn meta gie l-iben ta’Alla ma gharfuhx ghax il bniedem sar egoist u bla valuri u ma napprazawx .Kelli xorti niltaqa mieghu qabel miet bih hdeja hassejtni li genna Pawl inhobbok ma ninsiek qatt ..

    Reply

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