Josef Caruana, an ex L-Orizzont editor who works in the communications department of Castille, has urged people to sign an online petition to Pope Francis for the removal of Charles Scicluna as Malta’s archbishop.

The Change.org petition, started by an anonymous ‘Cittadin Malti’, says Scicluna crossed a line when he retweeted an opinion piece on The Shift News which compared political patronage in Malta to Mafia-run societies. 

The petition wrongly claims that the article had criticised Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for announcing that €5 million from the sale-of-citizenship fund will be allocated for the construction of flats in London for Maltese cancer patients. The article makes absolutely no reference to this announcement and was indeed published before Muscat even made this announcement on Xarabank. 

“A few weeks or maybe days ago, the Pope gave an order to all archbishops to not have any say in any political doings, which Charles Scicluna clearly broke,” the petition reads. “One day after another. And oh yes, this is not his first time. We want his immediate resignation and would like a proper religious person who can lead the people in their religious ways. And one who has NO POLITICAL INFLUENCE.”

Labour officials and supporters have long accused Scicluna of anti-Labour bias and indeed a recent MaltaToday survey found a clear political divide on the public’s opinion of the Archbishop. While 89.6% of PN voters said they trust Scicluna, only 43.3% of PL voters said likewise. 

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Tim Diacono

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]