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| The theatre of death at The Cathedral of The Assumption - Gozo |
I was in Malta again recently and had some time in Gozo which is
the smaller island off the coast of the main island of Malta. The
island of Gozo is green and pleasant and less frantic than the larger
island. The houses are further apart and have a rural atmosphere
compared to the other place. Gozo is interesting if you have the time
to visit the place. More often as not tourists spend a day on Gozo
before hurrying back on the last ferry.
Gozo has a unique atmosphere and the the capital of Victoria or
Rabat (you take your pick as with many other Maltese towns) is a
place of small shops, sometimes bad tea and the Cathedral that sits
on the heights above the market square. The walls of the citadel are
intimidating and as intended. The masonry was always there to ensure
that the locals knew who was in charge and that invaders were aware
of the outcome of any attack. Even now the ascent to the citadel is
difficult on foot and you have to stop and catch your breath in the
last sun of the year when the sun was unseasonably strong.
The citadel (built on the site of a Roman temple) was hot and dry and bathed in sun and yet the
Cathedral frowned down upon anyone who made it into the square and
shelled out the 6 Euros to go inside. I resent paying the Roman
catholic Church anything at all. The congregations are often
complicit in assaults carried out upon children and many of the
clergy (although not all) are aware of child abusers and are aware of
those who have 'got away with it'. The light, air and beauty of this
hilltop covered in stone is damaged by the Cathedral which has a
monumentally dark energy. The larger than life statues of Popes on
the steps ensures that a feeling of power and monumentality is
created. This is Roman Catholicism in large scale and in a sort of
funny farm baroque way. The site is harmed by the building and it
gets worse as you go inside.
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| Death as an object of fear and veneration |
The interior of the Cathedral embodies the sort of melancholy I
have mentioned on this blog previously. The darkness of the interior
is evident as the tourist is drawn inside towards the tombs in what
is a small and rather insignificant building. The floor is the first
things that grips you as the graves are laid out like Baroque crazy
paving. The clergy and aristocrats find their place under marble
tombs and ornate marble work that fills the imagination. The colours
are bright for this oppressive environment and the brightness of the
materials makes up for the Christian tendency to fill Churches with
the dead. The floor is filled with the dead and the so are the walls
where we find tombs. Here we also find effigies of a Pope in a
cabinet and this is where the Roman Catholics are the cult of the
dead incarnate. Death has become something that it inevitable to
become something that is actual desirable. Death is the thing that
brings the Christian closer to God and the Christian forgets the joys
of life in a rush to death.
The voices of tourists are hushed as they feel their way around in
the darkness and Japanese tourists clearly have no idea what they're
looking at and they seemed confused by the images and the apparently
random placing of the dead and the living. That is nothing new as
many Churches are little more that indoor burial sites where the
great and the good await a place in the next life. They point to the
image of a silver cross with an emaciated and tortured Christ and
this is the centre of this faith.
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| The Church led by the dead! |
I leave the Cathedral of Victoria / Rabat with relief and I
quickly go round the back to find that the masonry walls enclose a
garden and I touch the clean soil of the garden. This is clean dirt
rather than the filth that fills the cathedral's substructure and
the walls give a good view of the landscape. The wind at this height
blows the cobwebs away and the sun destroys any feelings of
negativity.
The Cathedral at Gozo
