Mgr Pietro Pace and Sir Adrian Dingli were the two most prominent Gozitans of the late Victorian era.

On September 16, 1864, the islands of Gozo and Comino were separated from the diocese of Malta and established as a separate independent diocese. So this year the diocese of Gozo commemorates its 150th anniversary.

The movement in favour of this separation had started more than a century before and the main episodes leading to the actual setting up of the diocese were studied by Joseph Bezzina in his doctoral thesis published as Religion and Politics in a Crown Colony which is considered the definite opus on the subject.

1848 is known as ‘the year of revolutions’ throughout Europe, and Paris was the mother-city of all revolutions on the continent. The spirit of the French Revolution of 1789 had swept across every city in Europe, and the revolutions were felt everywhere. Belgium had obtained its independence from Holland and Greece also became a sovereign state.

The spirit of revolution travelled far and wide, and even small places like the Maltese islands could not be protected from it. The archipelago had become a British colony in the formal sense of the word with the Treaty of Paris signed in 1814 and any sense of independence was still far away.

The Cathedral in Victoria.

Although Malta and Gozo became part of the British Empire in 1814, the Maltese never forgot that in 1800 they had asked for the help of the British against the French not to become a colony but only to keep them away from Napoleon’s clutches. The Maltese Church and the nobility were very much aware that at least until 1814, Malta was not a British colony like any other. The events surrounding the Treaty of Paris must have struck a blow to the Maltese gentry since through the events of that year, they lost all connections with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The mid-19th century was quite a turbulent one in the Maltese islands due to the fact that both the 1830 and the 1848 revolutions had instilled in many peoples the spirit of liberalism and nationalism. Even though social equality was still a dream in many countries, the idea of nations with a language to unify them was attractive enough to many Italians who wanted a quick solution to the Italian problem.

This spirit must have also influenced the few Gozitan men who were in high places in the running of the Maltese society, a spirit that eventually led to the establishment of the Gozitan diocese.

Between 1839 and 1848, following the concession of a free press, many Italian liberals sought refuge in Malta, a good number of whom took up journalism. Their publications helped propagate many new ideas on topics such as freedom and education. At times, their writings greatly annoyed the government in their own country, with the result that British interests were put in danger.

The ecclesiastical authorities in Malta were not happy to see Gozo separated from the main island since this meant less centrality of power

Camillo Sciberras and George Mitrovich were two Maltese patriots who entered into discussions with the British government in London to work in favour of greater liberties for the Maltese people. In 1845, a petition was forwarded, asking for a legislative council. The carnival riots of 1846, which were the result of the Governor’s decision to ban merry-making on Sunday, brought several problems to the open.

In 1847, Irishman Richard More O’Farrell was nominated Civil Governor. The Maltese had long demanded a civil governor instead of a military administrator, but this had been opposed due to strategic reasons. The Maltese were very pleased that at last they had a Catholic governor who was sensitive to Maltese aspirations, and all through 1848 he sent various dispatches to the Secretary of State on constitutional reforms. In 1849, a partly elected council was created.

Born in Victoria, Pietro Pace was ordained to the priesthood on December 17, 1853. This was only five years after the 1848 revolutions; the little boy must have grown up noticing that in the big wide world, things were not as quiet as they had been in the previous century. However, with Gozo being so tiny and cut off from the main island, and with the main means of transport between the islands not being very effective, Pace must have become aware of the European revolutionary spirit only when the newly ordained priest from Victoria was sent to Rome.

Pace was an intelligent student and gifted academically. Rome in the early 1850s must have been an interesting place to live in; a short-lived Roman republic between 1848 and 1849 had been crushed by a French army called in by Pope Pius IX, who had initially been hailed by Giuseppe Mazzini as the most likely paladin of a liberal unification of Italy.

Mazzini’s movement was basically evicted after a last failed revolt against Austria in Milan in 1853, crushing hopes of a democratic Italy in favour of the reactionary Piedmontese monarchy. In 1853, Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore was produced in Rome and La traviata in Venice. The young Pace, coming as he was from the almost forgotten little Mediterranean island of Gozo, must have been impressed by such events happening in the very milieu which was unfolding in the surrounding environment.

The ecclesiastical authorities in Malta were not happy to see Gozo separated from the main island since this meant less centrality of power. Pace and Adrian Dingli were the two most prominent Gozitans of the late Victorian era. Both Pace and Dingli had to work incessantly by directing their attention to the central seats of authority – Pace in the Vatican and Dingli with the Colonial Office.

After a long period of correspondence, with Dingli visiting London in person, the Colonial Office in the English capital gave the important approval on October 25, 1860. In 1862, he went to Turin to negotiate an extradition treaty with Italy. As both Italy and Germany were becoming new modern nations, tiny Gozo was about to be given its new diocese. Mgr Michaele Francesco Buttigieg, archpriest of the Gozo matrice, was chosen to be the first bishop of the island-diocese.

The second half of the 19th century was characterised by a flourishing in culture and a sense of belonging was felt among the Gozitan people; in January and February 1881, two bands – La Stella and Il Leone – were established in Victoria, although a musical group known as l’antica società had already existed by 1863 and even participated in the festivities of the newly-erected diocese.

May Gozo’s motto Fertilis ab undis caput effero (Fruitful land raising its head from the sea) inspire the relatively youthful Church in Gozo to continue in its mission of announcing the Gospel and bear fruit in time.