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Aims and Purposes

MELA aims to position Malta as a focal point of Mediterranean identity while providing the Church an opportunity to reaffirm its ethos and role in civil society. Inspired by Pope Francis’ mandate and teachings regarding the importance of the Mediterranean in its strategic positioning of bringing peoples, cultures and religions together, MELA facilitates the exploration of one’s faith as shaped by the places where we exist.

MELA is a project of the Episcopal Delegate for Evangelisation in collaboration with the Coordinator for Diocesan Presence in the Mediterranean.

The motivation and objectives can be best described through the acronym MELA:

M

The first letter, M, stands for Mediterranean. The objective is two-fold: firstly, MELA aims to provide a platform for the Maltese contribution to regional issues – not just social and political but also theological; secondly, it aims to contribute to the process of making Malta a multi‑cultural centre where different people from different backgrounds are welcomed and listened to. The fact that Malta is in the middle of the Mediterranean and that the Maltese are generally considered to be culturally European, linguistically Arab and geographically African, there are few places capable of living the multi‑cultural vocation than Malta. MELA aims, therefore, to bridge the West with the East and the North with the South, by helping to challenge local attitudes and also contribute to theological literacy.

E

The second letter, E, stands for Ethnographic. Inspired by the address Pope Francis gave in Naples in 2019 at the end of the meeting on the theme “Theology after Veritatis Gaudium in the context of the Mediterranean” [1], MELA aims to facilitate dialogue between people and society. This dialogical way of proceeding takes us to paradigms, ways of feeling, symbols and representations which make of us “spiritual ethnographers” [2]. In doing so, MELA aims to provide the context in which one gets to know the other “from within” [3], from with their cultures, their histories, their way of thinking, their language, and their different religious traditions. Dialogue is, as Pope Francis emphasises, “a method of study, as well as of teaching” [4]. The core principle, as a matter of fact, is: harmony through diversity [5]; that is, despite its Catholic foundations, MELA aims to reach out to all religious traditions in Malta and to collaborate together on a theology of welcoming, which is key to the historical, geographical and cultural matrix of the Mediterranean.

L

The third letter, L, stands for Laboratory. This time inspired by Veritatis Gaudium [6], MELA aims to be a sort of “cultural laboratory” [7], by analysing current social developments and developing an interpretation of the Gospel that attempts to do justice to this reality. Pope Francis emphasises time and time again that the Catholic Church should be more concerned about starting processes than about defining or occupying spaces through different dialogue methods; through MELA, the Church in Malta hopes to trigger processes and to stimulate dialogues not just between people and their society (as in the previous point), but also amongst people themselves: between university students and migrants, women and young people, school children and pensioners, the Catholic Church and secular and civil society, and between religions and cultures. This is an ethnographic – and not necessarily an ecclesial – laboratory, so this is an exercise in which the Catholic Church is going out from herself, to meet with people wherever they are, and in this manner, the world itself becomes a sort of laboratory where research and experiments are made, but also where experiences and relationships are forged. As a matter of fact, MELA aims to work with both Church and non‑Church organisations, so as to make what is academically assiduous also practically transformative.

A

The fourth letter, A, stands for Archives. The word ‘Archives’ stands in reference to the tangible heritage of the archdiocese’s different archives. As much as MELA aims to collaborate with different entities so as to make these archives accessible to researchers and to encourage publications in this sector, it also aims to acquire, safeguard, catalogue and preserve objects relating to migration in and from the Mediterranean. In doing so, MELA stands as a memorial and not simply as a monument: the aim is not simply to stand as a testament to the memory of migrants, but to keep that remembrance alive. As Pope Francis insisted in one of his addresses while visiting Greece, one must not permit this “sea of memories” to be transformed into a “sea of forgetfulness” [8]. This involves, therefore, “the commitment to continually revisit and reconsider tradition” [9] in such a way that contributes to “the construction of a ‘large tent of peace’ … where the different sons of the common father Abraham can live together in mutual respect” [10].

Through MELA, the Church in Malta aims to respond to the call of Pope Francis to help create “renewed and shared narratives which – based on listening to the past and to the present – speak to the hearts of people, narratives in which it is possible to see oneself in a constructive, peaceful and hope-generating way” [11].

[1] Francis, Meeting on the Theme ‘Theology after Veritatis Gaudium in the Context of the Mediterranean’. URL: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/june/documents/papa-francesco_20190621_teologia-napoli.html.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Id., Ecumenical meeting and Prayer For Peace, n. p. 2022, 4 November 2022. URL: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/events/event.dir.html/content/vaticanevents/en/2022/11/4/incontroecumenico-bahrain.html [accessed: 22 April 2024].
[6] Id., Veritatis Gaudium. URL: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20171208_veritatis-gaudium.html.
[7] Ibid., 3.
[8] Id., Visit to the Refugees at ‘Reception and Identification Centre. URL: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2021/december/documents/20211205-grecia-rifugiati.html.
[9] Id.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.