Another hero: Mark Montebello
The Sunday Times reports today that Mark Montebello, the humourless Dominican monk with the personality of Saviour Balzan who is a hero of the Labour/Xarabank/LGBTQI crowd, was the go-between when a mysterious and unnamed person offered “a six figure sum” to a woman to drop her sexploitation case against another Dominician monk, Charles Fenech.
Isn’t he one of the nominees for the new Malta Gay Rights Movement Awards? Great going there.
I’ve never know why Mark Montebello is lionised. To my mind, anybody without a sense of humour should automatically be suspect, because this generally means they have no self-awareness and no insight. I rank Mark Montebello, my exact contemporary at St Aloysius College sixth form (we took several of the same classes) in the same category as Jeffrey Pullicino, Franco Debono and Saviour Balzan.
There are markedly similar personality traits and the total absence of self-awareness, insight and a sense of humour are among them. This leads to a disproportionate level of self-belief, an inability to understand how they are perceived, and an enormous sense of entitlement and self-justification, which in turn makes for obnoxious arrogance.
But it is the extent of their self-delusion which is most disturbing. Mark Montebello plays the campaigning hero of Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl while making a large financial offer to an abused and exploited woman to drop charges against her abuser. And he sees no moral problem with that. “I just passed on the offer,” he told The Sunday Times.
And Jeffrey Pullicino, who is the dictionary definition of a knave, blackguard and scoundrel, texted me last week to tell me that he is a gentleman. How is such self-delusion possible? Lack of insight, lack of humour, and very possibly – in Mark Montebello’s case too – some problems up there.
All these men have the same quasi-messianic zeal for whatever cause it is they think they espouse. In reality there is a single cause, and it is themselves. They are the heroes of their own script, and they will die getting us to believe it.
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There are more to add to the list: Marco Cremona, Kenneth Zammit Tabona, John Dalli, Astrid Vella, and Andrew Azzopardi.
They are all about themselves and see themselves as a sort of heroes/intelligentsia in Lilliput.
They would be lost in insignificance if they had to leave the claustrophobic island.
Spot on. Add Mark Camilleri and Dominic Fenech too.
You can’t possibly know Dominic Fenech, Wheels within Wheels. He is as far removed from wannabe heroism and egocentrism as you could possibly imagine.
Bunch of narcissists with a personal agenda of their own and with hyperinflated egos the size of Zeppelins.
The exploited woman should press charges against Mark Montebello for attempting to bribe her into silence.
Maybe one should start looking into the funding and use of funds of ‘Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl’ and open these accounts/operations to transparency.
Is Menrad Calleja one of Mark Montebello’s friends?
One of his pet projects, yes. Montebello doesn’t have friends in the conventional sense.
Fr. Montebello is the pits. This is not a ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ scenario. Any person with a modicum of decency would have refused outright to play any part in this shameful ploy.
Exactly, how he expects otherwise is what makes him facetious.
Yet another hypocrite.
Mid-dlam ghad-dawl. How appropriate.
Well, if someone had a six-figure sum stashed under the mattress and was going to pay it to silence someone, then surely that would qualify as moving the money from darkness to light of day, wouldn’t it?
I agree with you about the absence of any sense of humour of all four. It shows anxiety, and lack of self confidence. Hence their predisposition to attack anyone who stands up to them.
Your analysis of their messianic zeal and their attempt to create their own religion in which they become the modern day Jesus Christ is the way I see it too.
Maybe one day we will see the four of them in a transfiguration on Mount Tabor. With John Dalli.
The absence of a sense of humour predisposes people to extremism. Amos Oz spoke about this on Hard Talk on BBC World.
And another thing: what would have been the source of this notorious six figure sum? Proceeds of the Kerygma marathons?
..and to Radio Maria?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-09/local-news/President-blasts-malicious-obscene-lies-about-L-Istrina-funding-6736125279
Labour issued a statement saying it stands by its candidate.
Now what.
Someone should ask if Fr. Montebello was promised a commission on the deal, and if he asked about the source of funds.
There, now I’ve done it.
“on behalf of a married person that (who) he declined to name”
Why specify that he is married?
There were rumours it was the Archbishop who made the offer. Fr Mark wants to rule that out by this claim.
“I just passed on the offer”, he stated.
Did this man, who also happens to be a Dominican monk, not realise that he was aiding and abetting in the cover-up of a serious crime?
Offering money to silence someone allegedly involved in a crime is a bribe. Doesn’t that make the person who passes the offer an accomplice?
Does not his involvement make him an accessory?
Most critics pointed their fingers at the Curia for the Archbisop’s resignation.
I firmly believe that we have to look elsewhere. No wonder the archbishop cited ill health. There was another circle hounding his authority.
Ir-rapport tal-lum fis-Sunday Times juri bl-aktar mod ċar f’liema livell baxx niżlet it-Times. Mela l-ewwel ġabu gidba faħxija dwar l-Arċisqof Cremona bit-tgħajjir kollu li ppubblikaw online mill-ħafna bloggers li għandhom odju kbir għal dak kollu li għandu x’jaqsam mal-knisja.
Issa llum qed jghidu li l-flus ma offrihomx hu, iżda li l-offerta twasslet minn Patri Mark. L-ebda apoloġija pubblika għall-Arċisqof Cremona wara li tant ħammġuh u lanqas ippruvaw isewwu l-ħsara li għamlu. Shame on them.
Il-hdura li ghandu Montebello ghan-Nazzjonalisti hija distillata.
Does not acting as a “go between” make one an accessory to the crime?
Mark Montebello who is always accusing the church of all sort of things and playing the victim is a just another hypocrite who has no shame to admit trying to buy silence.
Not actually ‘trying’ but being an accomplice to bribing in return for silence.
Complicity in crime is also a crime. Should the Curia’s Rapid Response Team – and the Police – go further in their investigations to see how far Mark Montebello could be guilty.
I know it is rather pedantic, in the context of the subject matter of this post, to point this out, but a male Dominican is not a monk but a friar.
[Daphne – No, it’s not pedantic. You actually forced me to do something I have never done, and look up the difference between them.]
Same pattern: those who yearn for recognition by their peers and higher but cannot get it jumping up and down arms flapping; those who have it just going about their business.
Surely his keeping him on as a Dominican friar is no longer tenable?
On another subject: 18-year-old man who bit a policeman jailed for six months and fined €4,000
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-09/local-news/18-year-old-man-who-bit-a-policeman-jailed-for-six-months-and-fined-4-000-6736125298
Surely this must be an injustice.
An EIGHTEEN year old gets jail time and a hefty fine for a minor injury on a policeman and people who stole thousands of euros in electricity get a slap on the hand. Also a decision to prosecute John Dalli by the previous Police Commissioner was reversed after the Commissioner was changed.
According to the Independent, the Home Affairs Ministry (presumably meaning Minister Mallia) welcomed the judgement.
Extreme inconsistency undermines credibility of the police and of government in its handling of justice.
‘Credibility of the police’ – what, and where, on earth is that?
Hardly ever seen it locally – especially under a labour administration.
The thing I cannot get my head around is that if the alleged victim had accepted to be paid to withdraw allegations made to the police, the alleged abuser would have carried on, undeterred, only wiser and craftier from the experience.
How on earth can Mark Montebello justify being a part of that?
Fixing a bribe is not neutral; it is enabling the criminal and a worse one at that because he would have had the triumph and the peace of mind of having the system work for him.
One notes of course that although Mark Montebello did not say how the payee is related to this whole mess, he does point out that it is a married man.
I have a feeling that there will be an aha moment when we realize why the marital status was the only thing, besides the gender, revealed about the payee.
You’re smelling out something interesting there ; what if this “married man”, is actually a well-known political figure whom Fr.Montebello was helping to protect – and obviously it would have to be a PL person otherwise the rabidly Mintoffian friar wouldn’t bother to do so .
On the other hand, the person claiming to have been offered the 6 figure sum from a “married man”via Mark Montebello for this “abused woman” is somebody called Edgar Bonnici Cachia. Anyone heard of this man before ?
There may be a misty haze coming from both sides and the sooner the court case begins the better.
Dear Daphne, really enjoy your blog and inquisitive nature but you got this one wrong. There is no price or doubts about Fr. Montebello’s integrity whatever your personal views about him.
Thanks
MC
P.S. typo ‘rank’ should be ‘rang’.
[Daphne – No, rank is rank. Men of integrity do not act as go-between in blackmail/bribery cases.]
These are the people who are doing a great disservice to the Catholic Church in Malta. No wonder so many people are getting disillusioned. Rotten apples are for throwing away and not for keeping.
Fr Montebello should be on the side of the victim not passing on messages aimed at silencing that victim and allowing the perpetrator to continue his abuse.
Mark Montebello was not just “a messenger”; he was an accomplice.
He knew that abuse had taken place but, not only did he not speak out, he actually tried to get the victim herself to retract.
Incidentally, this is all very damning for Fr Fenech: if he is innocent why did he – or someone for him – try to silence the accuser? It is not as if she was blackmailing him; on the contrary, she was offered money and refused it.
Mark Montebello is-Sensar
Imbasta kiteb il-ktieb “Il-verita tehlisna”.
When I read the story in the newspapers this morning, two questions crossed my mind: (a) was the moral disorder within the Dominican order so serious that it has actually affected the health of former Archbishop Emeritus Mgr Paul Cremona? and (b) is this the reason why Fr Montebello was for some time allegedly sent to Spain and then disappeared from TV programmes?
If it turns out in court that Fr Montebello was prepared to and attempted to pass on this message, which is equivalent to bribing a woman and distorting justice, I hope that the police would proceed immediately with a criminal accusation of the Dominican Father Montebello.
Montebello was sent to Mexico, not Spain.
No they won’t. Mid-Dawl Ghad-Dlam Montebello will immediately raise his “Not Able To Travel On Doctor’s Orders” card and will thus be absolved of all further investigations. ( a la’ Johnny cash Dalli)
They are poontang-crazy I tell you.
At 1.32 pm today I sent The Sunday Times and The Times his response to their report. I would like to share it here since, much to my detriment, they have not been forthcoming with it. Thank you for publishing it here.
NO INTERMEDIARY
Dear Sir, there must have been some misunderstanding with regard to the report by Matthew Xuereb in yesterday’s Sunday Times on the cash offered to silence the alleged victim of Fr. Charles Fenech. May I make it clear that I had not been in any way an intermediary in the matter. What happened was that, while speaking with Edgar Bonnici Cachia on the phone about some other matter, I mentioned in passing that it came to my attention that money had been offered to the alleged victim and that it had been refused. Mr Bonnici Cachia told me that he was aware of such cases and that neither he nor the alleged victim were for sale. I vouch that I had not passed on to him or to someone else any message on behalf of anyone. May I add that I consider such money offering to be unethical and immoral, and that I would never accept to be part of such dealings.
Fr Mark Montebello O.P.
A Mintoffian rabid charlatan, all talk and no substance.
father mark Montebello’s reaction is public on his fb.
Fr Mark Montebello: “Il-qassisin nafu minn fejn għandna ngħaddu”
http://normanvella.blogspot.com/2014/11/fr-mark-montebello-il-qassisin-nafu.html
our own little version of ‘sinister ministers’
Mid-Dawl ghad-Dlam
Another one bites the dust..
What a lying hypocrite! This guy seeks to portray himself as some truth seeker, someone who cares for nothing and no one but the truth. What a load of bull crap!