Updated: Video: Country pays last respects to Karl Chircop

People from all walks of life filled Christ the King parish church in Paola to pay their last respects to Labour MP Karl Chircop, 43, who passed away in a London hospital last Sunday after spending 10 weeks in a deep coma.

Besides his wife Adriana, Dr Chircop’s four children, his mother, his siblings and other family members, the packed congregation also included President Eddie Fenech Adami, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Labour leader Joseph Muscat, Speaker Louis Galea, the Labour Party’s administration and national executive, MPs and officials from unions and political parties.

Mgr Victor Grech, who concelebrated Mass assisted by, among others, the parish priests of the fourth district, from where Dr Chircop used to be elected, in his homily showered praise on the late Dr Chircop.

“We prayed, we hoped, we waited patiently... but in the end we lost.”

Mgr Grech said that God had been there the past 10 weeks and would remain there “to help us through this episode and to keep close to our heart the values passed on to us by Karl”.

A man’s usefulness was not calculated by the number of years one lived but by his vision of life and by how much love, dedication and commitment he placed in the mission he was trusted with.

Mgr Grech said that for 19 years of his life Karl was a doctor and for 12 of them he was also an MP. He was a good Christian model, serving the people in line with the motto he had chosen at the beginning of his career Dejjem Hemm Għalik (Always there for you).

He respected his family, was an inseparable partner to his wife Adriana and a good father.

At the end of his life he donated his organs, giving three persons a new life.

Karl, Mgr Grech said, loved life, sports and music. He appreciated friendship, was genuine and sincerely loved the poor and the weak. “He had a big sense of social justice.”

As the coffin was being carried out of the church by Dr Chircop's friends at the end of Mass, the congregation clapped respectfully.

The funeral cortege left Mater Dei Hospital just before 9 a.m. this morning stopping in front of the Labour Party’s headquarters in Ħamrun where the Labour Party paid Dr Chircop its last respects as Winter Moods, led by singer Ivan Grech played the song Marigolds.

An emotional Labour leader placed flowers on Dr Chircop’s coffin and hugged Dr Chircop’s wife Adriana.

A minute’s silence was then observed by the people gathered at the headquarters after which Labour leader Joseph Muscat thanked Dr Chircop simply saying Grazzi Karl (thank you Karl) to the applause of those present.

An avid Liverpool supperter, Dr Chircop had been an MP since 1996. His corpse arrived in Malta three days after the machines that were keeping him alive, following a cerebral haemorrhage on August 3, were switched off, his organs were donated and the paperwork to bring him back was completed.

Mass was followed by private burial at the Addolorata Cemetery.