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The Unholy War: a five-part series on Malta’s Interdett – Part 1
First of a MaltaToday series on the January 1961 Church Interdett, first published in MaltaToday in 2005
17 April 2021, 5:34pm
by Michaela Muscat
In January 1961, the diocesan commission issued a circular which was read out in all churches condemning the MLP’s affiliation with the Socialist International and the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation. In a bid to wield its power over the god-fearing masses, it declared a sin the reading of Labour newspapers and the attendance of MLP meetings.
The events of the sixties would re-carve Maltese society as Gonzi’s ‘holy soldiers’ battled Mintoff’s ‘evil’ ‘soldiers of steel’ (suldati ta’ l-azzar), the total number of people who had voted in favour of Labour’s proposal for integration of the Maltese islands with the United Kingdom.
With a sense of escalation characterising the heady days of the early sixties, de Marco says the language used by both sides had been far from diplomatic. The strong convictions held by both Archbishop Michael Gonzi and Labour leader Dom Mintoff did not help to ease tensions.
“They were alike – headstrong personalities who believed that they had to use extreme measures to get their point across.”
De Marco and Micallef Stafrace were atypical bosom buddies in turbulent political times. Their friendship stood strong in the face of adversity. As a real friend would do, de Marco walked in when the rest of the world walked out. When Micallef Stafrace and his spouse were shunned by some on their wedding day, de Marco attended the reception formally with his partner Violet. The strong sense of solidarity might seem peculiar in the circumstances.
Joe Micallef Stafrace, 1933-2021
Joe Micallef Stafrace had a distinguished career but, above all, he was a decent and well-read man.
He was loyal to the Labour Party but never afraid to criticise it or its leadership when he deemed necessary. Is-Sebħ, which he edited, became a daily in 1956. It was an anti-colonial mouthpiece at a time when Dom Mintoff’s party was seeking integration with Britain. One of its famous front-page editorials in February 1956, when Major-General Sir Robert Laycock was governor, was titled “Pay up or go home”.
Although Micallef Stafrace was a victim of the Church’s interdict in 1961 and got married in a sacristy, he was actually quite a religious person with an interest in theology, a man of principle with a high regard for morality.
Joe Micallef Stafrace, independent-minded Labour stalwart, dies at 87
Labour stalwart who endured imprisonment for the vilification of the British governor and banishment from Catholic rites under the Interdett, has passed away
29 January 2021, 9:54am
by Matthew Vella
The veteran socialist politician Joe Micallef Stafrace, a Labour minister who lived through the highs and lows of the Dom Mintoff years, has died. He was 87.
Micallef Stafrace became an MP in 1962 in a casual election for the vacant seat of Patrick Holland, which he retained in the elections after to become minister for trade, industry and tourism in the first Mintoff administration of 1971. But he resigned abruptly in October 1971, for reasons never officially disclosed.