“The Church in Malta, had a crusader mentality at the time and came out guns blazing against the Labour Party. However, he is also confident that black period will never return. Vatican Council II, which came after the interdiction, gave us the tools to find a way out of the impasse. The Church learned from those mistakes”
Fr Anġ Seychell
“A lump rises in my throat as I write this... Blood was not shed. Yet hatred was sown and took root. That can be worse than spilling of blood.” Mgr Gonzi had become obsessed with the belief that the Labour Party was inching closer to Communism”
Lino Spiteri
“Whether it was a figment of Mgr Gonzi’s imagination, or whether Dom Mintoff deliberately gave that impression, it was the climax of the bitter Church-Labour dispute and the beginning of eight years of social banishment of MLP supporters.”
“I had always felt close to the workers’ movement but I chose to stay loyal to the Church. It wasn’t an easy choice and one that caused me a lot of pain”
Fr. Anġ Seychell
“I tried to minimise the number of cases where I could not give absolution to parishioners who came for confession. The cases were very few”
“It was a period that caused a lot of harm, as people were unfairly put in a situation of having to choose between the party they supported and the Church they were baptised in. Labourites who chose to continue supporting the party felt as if the Church had rejected them and this led to a grudge that was carried for a long time”
“When I said I felt I had done no wrong, he insisted I could only get married in the sacristy, even denying me the right to get married in a chapel. I later learnt that a number of priests had urged my wife-to-be to leave me. Can you imagine that?” Despite all this, I still wanted a Church wedding. When Yvonne was asked whether she’d take me as her husband she yelled out ‘yes’, her voice resounding well beyond the thick walls of the sacristy”
Joe Micallef Stafrace
