I would like to congratulate Bishop-elect Charles Scicluna on his Episcopal Ordination. This is another gift to us from God together with our dear Archbishop Paul Cremona and Bishop Mario Grech forming a great team for the Year of Faith.

As Mgr Scicluna said, we have an extraordinary product to promote and the Archbishop has already started this promotion, first and foremost with his human touch and typical smile that reflects his inner strength through which he is spreading the good news.

Our religion is a joyful one and it has to be transmitted as such. It is joyful despite any suffering that has a value and is even light when placed in the hands of Jesus. It is the religion that has even compelled St Francis to refer to death – the path to eternal life – as “Sister Death”.

This is truly an extraordinary product providing us with the possibility of having a relationship with the one to whom we owe every breath of our lives. This is God’s world and – through the gospel – He constantly invites us to participate in the joy of His creation with the conviction that when we “do as He says” this joy is guaranteed. We have only to accept the splendour of our faith to know what it really means.

This team is being presented to us in the Year of Faith to help us consider this unique proposal. No stone should be left unturned to determine the most effective method to communicate the contents of the gospel with an accent on the true words of Jesus: “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love as I also have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.”