Report on Visit of Arciconfraternita Madonna Del Carmine Taranto 11 to 17 November 2023. By Mark Agius, Rector Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Valletta
The Prior (Rector) of the Arciconfraternita Madonna Del Carmine Taranto, Antonello Papalia, accompanied by three Associates visited Malta between 11 and 17 November 2023. This Visit was quite unexpected, as I was only given three weeks’ notice.
I received great help in arranging to meet him from Jean Pierre Fava, expert on Faith Tourism at Malta Tourism Authority and Joe Farrugia, Delegate for the Laity at Curia.
The reason for the visit was that the Arciconfraternita Madonna Del Carmine Taranto wished to invite Maltese Confraternities to participate in FACIES PASSIONIS in 2024.
FACIES PASSIONIS is an event organized in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023 by the Archconfraternity of Carmine of Taranto. During the four events, some of the most representative statues depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ and the Marian realities coming from various Italian regions belonging to Confraternities and Associations all linked by a common thread, namely the organization of popular rites and traditions linked to the Easter Triduum and the representation of the Passion and Death of Jesus.”
The intention of the Archconfraternity of Carmine of Taranto was to invite Maltese Confraternities or Maltese Kummissionijiet tal-Gimgha l-Kbira to participate by sending their statues to participate in FACIES PASSIONIS , which is an exhibition of full sized statues of the passion in Taranto, at a time which is different from Holy Week. This exhibition is visited by several thousand (in the region of 20,000 persons) every time it is held. Malta would be the first foreign country to be invited. Clearly the number of persons attending would mean very good publicity for Faith Tourism in Malta.
As rector of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta, I had to organise a series of visits by Mr. Papalia’s team to the various Oratories in Malta in which Good Friday Statues are kept, and I found very good cooperation from the various Maltese Groups. Mr. Papalia insisted that he would go around the various groups himself in his own car, however, after the first day, he decided to cancel further visits, and instead to give a presentation about Holy Week in Taranto and FACIES PASSIONIS.
The Malta Tourism Authority was able to arrange for the presentation to be held at Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, and it was attended by representatives from Valletta, Birgu, Bormla, Luqa, and Rabat. After the presentation we discussed the proposal that Malta should participate in Facies Passionis. We could see pros and cons to this. In favour was the fact that it would be very good publicity for Malta Faith Tourism and that members of Maltese Organisations could gain experience and share information with their Italian Colleagues. Against was the obvious difficulties of transporting works of art overseas to a foreign country.
Clearly, we could not make any decisions at the meeting and the Maltese groups agreed to meet again to discuss further.
One way forward that can be suggested is to offer the Arciconfraternita Madonna Del Carmine Taranto a Maltese Participation through a Photographic Exhibition in the first instance, and perhaps an exhibition of models of statues later if Taranto agrees.