The Church yesterday celebrated the Episcopal ordination of Mgr Prospero Grech OSA as he prepares to become Malta’s second cardinal in almost 200 years next week.
He was consecrated Titular Archbishop of San Leone in a packed St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta during a two-and-a-half-hour long ceremony led by Archbishop Paul Cremona, assisted by Cardinal-elect Mgr Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Holy See’s Prefecture of Economic Affairs, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech and another three bishops.
Church law required Mgr Grech to be consecrated Archbishop before the official Vatican ceremony on February 18 when he will be among a select group of 22 new cardinals.
The ceremony began at 6 p.m. and included a host of symbolic rituals, which saw the cardinal-elect making his vows and lying face down on the floor during the litany.
It was also marked by the laying of the hands on his head, the consecration prayer, his anointment and the presentation of the ring.
The congregation, composed of the President and the Prime Minister, politicians, members of the clergy, his family and the public, broke out into lengthy applause when Archbishop Grech stood with his staff in hand, wearing the mitre.
The 86-year-old Augustinian friar later confessed to shedding a tear as he walked down the aisle to bless the congregation and back again.
Despite the solemnity of the event, the “reluctant cardinal”, as he has been described, whose sense of humour has shone since the public came to know him last month, could not resist the temptation to crack a couple of jokes and have the congregation laughing.
At the end of the ceremony, he said he did not want to say much because, thanks to the media, everyone knew more about him than he did himself.
He took the opportunity to thank people, particularly his relatives Joe and Phyllis Ciappara, who have given him a place to eat and sleep when in Malta since his mother passed away.
“They have not yet found red bed sheets however,” the newly consecrated Archbishop joked from the pulpit.
He said he hoped the Holy Spirit would lead him as he had always done.
Shunning the limelight, he could not avoid the glare of the gilded co-cathedral yesterday. He told journalists after Mass that he would be leaving for Rome after celebrating Mass in Valletta today, the eve of the feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck, because he had to “escape”.
The ceremony yesterday was the sacrament and the event in Rome was the feast, he said, distinguishing between the two. “I will go from purple to red but I will remain the same,” said the down-to-earth man.
Following Mass, President George Abela presented the cardinal-elect with a painting and told him the country had been waiting for this day for 200 years.
A respected theologian and accomplished academic, his vocational career has spanned over 50 years and he has been working with Pope Benedict XVI for 20.
The election of the first Augustinian cardinal in 111 years signifies the great esteem in which he is held by both the Pontiff and the Holy See.
It is also a tribute to the contribution of the Maltese Church.