A successor for Mgr Gonzi

I came to know the late Professor Mark Said, OP, some years back when he was a resident at the Dar tal-Kleru in Fleur de Lys for a short time and almost in the twilight of his life. However there were still sparks of that beaming twinkle in his eyes. When I recounted an episode concerning him, I overheard quite by chance over the telephone many years previously, his reaction was just a very significant silent nod and a smile.

It was the feast of St Cajetan on a mid-August Sunday. I used to phone my elderly mother regularly and the crossing of the telephone lines was quite the order of the day. I overheard a conversation in a very hushed tone apparently from the Hamrun parish church sacristry.

Rumours about the possible appointees to succeed Mgr Gonzi were rampant at the time, and I instantly realised that quite inadvertently I had hit upon a revealing bit of gossip. I asked my wife to take up the phone from an extension, but she outrightly refused, insisting that I desist from listening in. But the temptation proved too strong!

The names of Professor Mark Said, OP, and of Professor Prospero Grech, OSA - both top-flight authorities in their respective specialties - were mentioned. But the hushed voice stated that Mgr Gonzi black-balled both nominations. Both of them belonged to religious orders and not to the secular clergy, hence Mgr Gonzi's rejection. I very much suspect, however, that in the case of Professor Grech, in spite of his being an internationally-acknowledged biblical scholar, his affinity with the Labour Party's much-revered stalwart Moses Gatt and the Craigs of Vittoriosa, also known as Labour sympathisers, might also have contributed to Mgr Gonzi's veto.

I may be wrong, of course, but the political scenario at the time was so highly charged that nothing could be ruled out. When it comes to re-assess Mgr Gonzi's role at the time properly, many now-arcane factors may perhaps surface.

In any event, in Mgr Gonzi's case, with apologies to Manzoni, "ai posteri l'ardua sentenza".