The Cana Movement

I read with much interest Mgr Charles G. Vella's article in The Sunday Times of July 9. It was the text of a speech which he gave for World Family Day - May 26 - to the European Parliamentarians in Strasbourg. Fr Charles stressed family values and gave reasons why families, today, are collapsing.

Fr Charles Vella, himself founder member of the Cana Movement in Malta way back in 1956, met with much controversy at the time, as the Movement was seen by some as an innovation for which Malta was not yet ready. However, with his usual determination and his avant-garde attitude, he trod on and today, thank God, we have a Movement which offers sterling service to families in Malta. True to its meaning, the Cana Movement was providential to these islands.

After Fr Vella's tenure of office as founder/director of the Cana Movement for many years, the responsibility to continue to direct it for the following years fell on the shoulders of Fr Louis Camilleri.

During these years the Cana Movement continued to flourish and increase its professional staff, expanding its services to other areas and leaving no stone unturned to reach out to couples in need of further counselling. It still did not prove an easy task, as the family, today, is not regarded by certain elements as the life-long partnership of one man and one woman based on love, fidelity and self-giving.

However, the Movement did not lose heart in front of these challenges, and under the able directorship, also of many years, of Fr Louis Camilleri, the Movement continued quietly, steadily and efficiently to promote family life and values.

Recently, the reigns of power of Cana Movement have been passed on to Fr Joe Mizzi, who has been part of the Cana team for some years.

While wishing these three Reverend gentlemen continued success in their respective work in the field of the Lord, with special mention towards the institution called "family", I feel it is the duty of us all who have the Movement at heart to remember them and their work in our prayers.

I conclude my contribution with the few lines borrowed from Fr Vella's article and originated by the Chinese politician and poet Lu Bu We 2,255 years ago, but which still holds:

"If the person is well,
then the family is well.

If the family is well,
then the State will be well.

If the State will be well,
then the world will be well."