Cardinal-elect Prospero Grech said today that The Times could not have chosen a better heading when it described him as The Reluctant Cardinal.
Speaking at a press conference, he said that he considered his nomination as not only a personal honour, but also an honour by the Pope to Malta.
He said that he had written to the Pope to thank him.
"I always believed in the Pope's infallibility, but now I am beginning to doubt it," he joked, demonstrating his insatiable sense of humour.
When his nomination was announced, he had also joked that His Holiness had given him a retirement present, Mgr Grech added.
He said he did not expect to have many additional duties once he wears the red hat.
During his press conference, Mgr Grech reminisced on how it was during the war that he decided to becoming a priest.
At the time, he spent three days a week attending University lectures in Valletta, and on another three days a week he was a conscript serving on an anti-aircraft battery.
During that time, he said, he had plenty of time to think, and he decided to follow a cousin into the Augustinian Order.
He said his life had been hectic since the Pope's surprise announcement, but once the ceremony was over on February 18, he would return to his peaceful life - he plans to continue to live in the convent.
A RELATIVE UNKNOWN
When Fr Prospero Grech was made a companion of the National Order of Merit in December, few of those present for the ceremony at the President’s Palace in Valletta knew who this elderly Augustinian friar was.
I was impressed by his expertise, his wisdom, his openness, his dry sense of humour and his great love for the Church and humanity
But since being conferred the country’s highest honour on Republic Day, Mgr Grech, 86, has gone from being relatively unknown to making history after Pope Benedict XVI decided to appoint him cardinal this month.
Mgr Grech’s face has also surfaced on billboards put up by the Maltese Church, announcing his ordination as archbishop at St John’s Co-Cathedral tomorrow, a necessary precursor to the official Vatican ceremony that will appoint a number of cardinals on February 18.
The lack of public knowledge about Malta’s second ever cardinal – the first was Cardinal Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata in 1818 – is understandable because since his priestly ordination in 1950 Mgr Grech has spent most of his time teaching abroad.
He even joked about the matter in a recent interview with the TVM programme Qalb in-Nies: “I don’t know why they gave me the honour (on Republic Day) because the only contribution I gave Malta was by not being a nuisance.”
This down-to-earth demeanour is characteristic of the man, according to Fr Emmanuel Borg Bonello, provincial of the Augustinian Order in Malta and a former student of Mgr Grech in Rome.
Despite being a respected theologian and accomplished academic, Mgr Grech does not come across as an overbearing teacher, Fr Borg Bonello says. “While studying and teaching are part of his mission, Mgr Grech also performs pastoral work with couples.”
This yearning for simplicity, Fr Borg Bonello believes, is also reflected in Mgr Grech’s choice to continue living with the Augustinian community in Rome despite his new appointment.
"He is a man convinced and dedicated to his vocation. Honours and platitudes are not his world. The Augustinian Order is proud of Mgr Grech’s appointment as cardinal but I am also happy for him because it recognises his hard work and dedication.”
It is a feeling shared by Mgr Charles Scicluna, the Promoter of Justice at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, who worked with Mgr Grech for a number of years.
The Augustinian friar formed part of a group of theologians, known as the Consulta, who gave expert advice on matters under study at the Congregation.
“I was impressed by his expertise, his wisdom, his openness, his dry sense of humour and his great love for the Church and humanity,” Mgr Scicluna says.
Mgr Grech is instrumental in promoting greater knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, the teachings of the Church’s Fathers and helping in the formation of hundreds of future priests and bishops, Mgr Scicluna adds.
Born in Vittoriosa in 1925, Mgr Grech will tomorrow be ordained archbishop, a formality needed by any cardinal-to-be, by Archbishop Giuseppe Versaldi in the presence of Archbishop Paul Cremona and Bishop Mario Grech.
Mgr Grech graduated Doctor of Theology from the Gregorian University, Rome in 1953 and after pursuing further studies was appointed lecturer at the Augustinian Theological College in Rabat.
He also served at the Augustine Institute in Rome and lectured in hermeneutics for over 30 years at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.
Being appointed cardinal may not have been on Mgr Grech’s radar when he first entered the Augustinian order in 1943 and the low profile he kept throughout the years was very much in line with the communitarian life he chose to live.
On television Mgr Grech expressed regret that he would no longer be able to whiz around Rome on his motorino after being given advice that it was not appropriate for a cardinal to be seen on one.
However, Mgr Grech, sporting what appeared to be a mischievous grin, did confide with the interviewer that he might consider going for the occasional trip on his scooter.
Irrespective of where this new turn in life takes him, Mgr Scicluna believes that Mgr Grech has always been and continues to be “a very liable and competent servant of the Church”.
It is this picture that Maltese Catholics will get a glimpse of tomorrow as the unknown friar reluctantly starts the process to take on the mantle of being only the second Maltese cardinal in history.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com