Mgr Lawrence Gatt writes:

Why is Paul Attard’s abrupt disappearance a loss for Malta? It is always a loss even if it were not abrupt. The way it happened made it more shocking.

Paul contributed towards cultural, religious and social life in Malta in myriad ways. His long extraordinary career has been traced repeatedly over the last few days. He dealt with people on high and with everyone else in his unmistakable gentlemanly way that made one feel comfortable and take leave with a good taste.

Honesty and righteousness for Paul were not a policy but a style of life. He could be trusted, and was trusted, in all walks of life. I think I should recall particularly these last years that I had the privilege to work with him on the Council of the Foundation for St John’s Co-Cathedral.

He was active on the council for more than a decade. He thought and spoke of St John’s as if it were his home, a kind of foreboding of what he could hope for as his eternal abode. He used to say that he wanted to live to see St John’s revived to its original splendour, which he almost did.

I feel I must put on record my last long conversation with Paul about an hour before he had to part with the rest of us, his discussion on St John’s, its welfare and its future. Paul spoke also so fondly of his family and was singing their joys, his grandchildren and what is normally the joy of the perfect gentleman that he was.

Malta can hardly afford to lose men and women of Paul’s worth, men and women with his strong, genuine Christian belief who could stand on their feet throughout the four seasons, on whom Malta could count for the years to come.

My condolences to Mrs Attard and her dear ones.