A tale of two monsignors

Like all humans, priests have ambition.

Like all organisations, the Church has a hierarchical set-up and priests with ambition want to climb up the ranks.

Just like all other organisations, every now and then, there are promotions in the Church, such as what happened last week when Pope Francis appointed several bishops and cardinals.

And just like all other humans, priests with ambition do their best to push the right buttons for them to be given a higher status.

Last week, it was announced that Gozo Bishop Mario Grech will be leaving the Gozo diocese to take up a post at the Vatican. Mgr Grech, head of the Church in Gozo since 2005, was appointed by the Pope as General ProSecretary of the Synod of Bishops. He will take over full responsibilities once the current incumbent, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, concludes his mandate.

This appointment follows a similarly prestigious one that has been held by Archbishop Mgr Charles Scicluna, who is the adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Holy See’s body responsible for dealing with clerical sexual abuse cases. Unlike Mgr Grech, who is renouncing his Gozo bishopric, Mgr Scicluna remained head of the Church in Malta.

But there is another difference which is not insignificant.

Mgr Grech will be stationed in Rome while Mgr Scicluna retains his place in Malta, although the appointment of auxiliary bishop Mgr Joseph Galea Curmi last year was specifically intended to give Mgr Scicluna extensive support in the running of the archdiocese given that he (Scicluna) is often requested by the Pope to leave on important assignments abroad. Two of the more known cases when this happened were Mgr Scicluna’s investigation of priestly sexual abuse in Chile and the organisation of a summit on sexual abuse in Rome earlier this year.

But, for all intents and purposes, Mgr Scicluna’s main role is that of Malta’s Catholic leader whereas, for Mgr Grech, things will drastically change when he moves to the Vatican.

And here comes the tricky part because, as we said earlier, like all humans, priests have ambition and want to climb up the Church hierarchy. Will Mgr Grech now have a better chance to make inroads within the Church structure than Mgr Scicluna?

Malta boasts one cardinal, Prospero Grech, installed as such in 2012 but, since he was already over 80, cannot take part in the election of a Pope. He was not, in fact, part of the conclave which elected Pope Francis in 2013.

But both Mgr Scicluna, aged 60, and Mgr Grech, aged 62, are still young in this respect. Both are held in high esteem by the Pope, given the appointments they have been given, and both would look forward to an eventual elevation to cardinal. They were both omitted from the promotions given last week by the Pope, but it is clear that they are both inching their way towards a higher rank.

They now seem to be in competition with each other as to who of them will be the first to wear the red skull-cap.

There was only one Maltese cardinal who took part in the election of a pope: Cardinal Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata, who actually took part in three conclaves between 1823 and 1831.

Who knows, maybe we’ll have another one at the next conclave.