God bless Malta, Pope tells President de Marco

President Guido de Marco yesterday had a private audience with Pope John Paul II, who recalled the "very warm" welcome he had received on his trip to Malta three years ago.

The President told the Pope his exhortation to the Maltese at the end of that trip - to be builders of bridges between the north and south Mediterranean - would be immortalised on a marble plaque to be put up on the façade of the Presidential Palace, in Valletta, side by side with plaques marking other important events in Malta's history.

"This could be the mission statement of the Maltese people," Prof. de Marco said.

The audience lasted for some 20 minutes and the Pope held the President's hand almost throughout, Prof. De Marco recounted afterwards. "The Pope has the intellectual power to defy his lack of physical health and the will power to give everything of himself for Christ, the Church and Christianity," he said.

After the private audience, the Pontiff received members of the Maltese delegation and told Prof. de Marco, in English:

"Your visit brings back vivid memories of my journey to Malta three years ago and the very warm welcome which I received. My Jubilee pilgrimage in the footsteps of St Paul was an occasion for me to appreciate once more your country's ancient Christian heritage and to encourage your fellow citizens in their efforts to build a society worthy of its noble cultural heritage.

"Malta's strength has always been its families, which have not only enriched the social fabric but also contributed significantly to the Church's universal mission, not least through their abundant harvest of priestly and religious vocations.

"May families always find encouragement and support in their work of educating the young who are the future of Malta. Upon you and all the beloved Maltese people I cordially invoke God's abundant blessings of prosperity, joy and peace."

As the delegation was leaving he turned to the President again and said: "God bless Malta".

This was Prof. de Marco's third audience with Pope John Paul II outside Malta. The first was in February 1991, when he was the president of the United Nations General Assembly and the second in September 1999, as a new President. He has also met the Pontiff twice on the latter's visits to Malta.

The President's appointment at the Vatican City came after a departure ceremony held at Palazzo del Quirinale at the end of his three-day state visit to Italy. His discussions with the country's political leaders revolved around Malta's imminent membership of the EU and how it could continue to strengthen its Euro-Mediterranean role.

"Italy and Malta have common interests which render both sensitive to crisis in this region," he told reporters.

"We both believe that Europe needs the Mediterranean as much as the Mediterranean needs Europe. If the Mediterranean is not put higher on the European agenda, I believe there could be negative consequences that might affect the whole of Europe.

"So Malta will have a relevant role in this regard and we need to find countries that hold the same line. One of them is certainly Italy.

"We also want a united Europe, with a balance between north and south, east and west, and together find what makes us all European. Solutions are not found through dividing Europe into blocs but in dialogue and Malta can, and should, have a helping role in this regard."

Prof. de Marco yesterday met Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Rocco Bottiglione, the Italian Minister for Community Policies, and leaders of the opposition parties.

The President and Mrs de Marco were hosted to lunch at Palazzo Malta by Fra Andrew Bertie, Grandmaster of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

He also met members of the Maltese community, to whom he described his meeting with President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as "one of the warmest imaginable".

To applause, he said no other country had helped Malta as much as Italy in its efforts to join the European Union. He recalled Aldo Moro's words, that the Italian government could always be relied on to help Malta, and said that 40 years on, Italy had been true to its promise.

He added that Gianfranco Fini, Italy's deputy premier, had told him a day earlier that one thing all the political forces of the country agreed on was its friendship with Malta.

Today, the President is in Milan where he is scheduled to meet the mayor, the president of the region of Lombardy and business leaders.