Roamer did not meet his deadline with the editor yesterday. He only managed to meet it the Saturday before with great pain and suffering.
His masterful use of words helped him demolish arguments he disagreed with- Fr Joe Borg
He will not be meeting any other deadlines with The Sunday Times as last Monday, he met the most important deadline of all, the one with his Creator. It must have been a nice meeting.
John Micallef was able to give Him double the talents He had given him when he was born.
He was an exemplary Christian whose contribution to the media apostolate was substantial, and it went beyond his weekly column in The Sunday Times.
I got to know Roamer some 30 years or so ago, when he helped my colleagues and I to give a qualitative push forward to the Media Centre of the Archdiocese of Malta. We were still in the very beginning of the project.
Roamer put me in contact with a Dutch man living in Malta, a certain Mr Meuwissen, who by sheer coincidence passed away a few weeks ago.
Meuwissen, undoubtedly with (more than) a little push by Roamer, fell in love with our dream. He gave us a generous donation and got us more contributions from a Dutch foundation. This was the launching pad we needed. Without his help, things would have been much harder.
John Micallef was always a close friend of the Media Centre. He had helped us in a number of projects, generally through copy writing. This was his forte. He was a master of words; always using them in great style and precision.
His masterful use of words helped him demolish arguments he disagreed with, but he never used his skill to demolish people.
His pieces in The Sunday Times were so very well written.
We used to discuss a lot and disagree a lot. Since we had different views on a number of issues our conversations were always very interesting.
We contacted each other last when he spoke to me about the conference on Chesterton that he, with others, was organising.
Roamer loved Chesterton a lot, and one could frequently see the influence Chesterton had on him. It was symbolic that he also referred to him in his last piece to The Sunday Times.
Another love of Roamer was his faith and his Church. He was an exemplary man of faith. One of the last three items penned by him was about the Church in the US and the Pope’s warning that several decisions being taken by the administration was limiting freedom of religion in the US.
He will now not be bothered any more with such issues and problems. Roamer is now in the bosom of Him whom he loved and served.
There he rests in peace.
• Driving on our ‘highways’ we see beautiful women in sexy underwear adorning billboards. We will soon see seasoned as well as budding politicians beaming their smiles on us. But did we also have to have bill-boards advertising the episcopal ordination of Fr Prospero Grech?
Are billboards an appropriate way of advertising episcopal ordinations? I do not think so.
Besides, billboards are effective only if they have between three and six words on them. Otherwise they are a nuisance, not a help. The billboard advertising Fr Grech’s ordination is so full of words that it is a boring.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt