One can sympathise with John Mizzi in his letter titled What Pope Benedict Will Not See (March 25) regarding the venues envisaged for Pope Benedict's forthcoming visit to Malta. The organisers felt they could not fit in the St Paul's Bay, Burmarrad and Mosta area in his brief itinerary between April 17 and 18, possibly for some good reasons as well, although one may beg to differ.
The Apostle Paul was indeed shipwrecked on Malta between 59 and 62 AD, probably in the Qawra area, judging by the at least four, if not five Roman period anchor stocks discovered in recent years by divers off Għallis Point, in some 120 feet of water (See Mark Gatt's publication Paulus - The Shipwreck 60 AD, Malta 2009) - one important Egyptian anchor was recovered by diver Gatt himself very recently. So the St Paul's Bay greater area would fit the shipwreck's site very well, as he cogently argues and writes.
Nevertheless, when after three months Paul and the other 275 survivors of his shipwreck left Malta, they are likely to have set out, for Syracuse in eastern Sicily, from either Marsamxett harbour, or from Grand Harbour, or from Marsaxlokk harbour - all of these harbours being used by Malta's then Roman masters, again often employing Alexandrian (Egyptian) ships and sailors.
The most likely candidate for Paul's departure would be the Roman harbour at Marsa, deep inside Grand Harbour, where Roman quays were discovered within living memory, reaching towards Qormi. This is Malta's most obvious port.
Hence, Pope Benedict's crossing of Grand Harbour by catamaran, surrounded by countless Maltese boats, may not be out of place at all, in my humble view. The small town of Kalkara as his starting point is not amiss either, since it would afford the Pope an opportunity to meet Cottonera's working class and representatives, which would rope in the Three Cities of Vittoriosa, Cospicua and Senglea, apart from Żabbar, Fgura, Tarxien and Paola. This would show the locals there that the Church has not forgotten them.
One might agree that the Valletta Waterfront's inclusion could be controversial for the Pope's meeting with Malta's youth. Yet one could find meaning in this too, for it is mainly the Pope's message to Malta's youngsters that will count in the end: more the substance than the venue, however spectacular and picturesque, even for international journalists to get a glimpse of our modern and traditional Malta (and Gozo).
Unfortunately, the Pope is coming over to our shores for just a day and a half, which strikes one as being very brief. He must have a tight schedule indeed in his hard work at the Vatican. Of course, he will be spending a longer time, next September, on his official visit to England and Scotland, then Ireland soon after.
But this is understandable.
These are difficult times for the Church, which is partly rightly being showered with criticism, and partly being possibly affected by inflated judgements.
During his Malta visit Pope Benedict is admittedly not going to experience or share the surroundings of Paul's shipwreck.
He is going to experience, in a different way, what it entails to steer the ship of the Catholic Church through troubled waters, for the rebuilding of our faith.
And last but not least, he may hint at the Apostle Paul's often repeated message of self-control against personal weakness and sinfulness, modern materialism and consumerism, broken families, deprived youth and deprived children, and our modern version of material and especially spiritual poverty. Like his patron St Benedict, one of Pope Benedict's mottos is undoubtedly Ora et Labora, pray and work, as a habit bearing good fruit, especially in this modern world of stress and confused values.