Much has been said and written about President Emeritus Ċensu Tabone and Rev. Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott who passed away just two days apart aged 98 and 76 years respectively. Any more from my side to honour these two outstanding figures would be just repetition. However I feel I should add my little experience of them both which is somewhat different from what has already been stated.
Dr Tabone and Fr Peter are no longer physically with us but their achievements and memory will linger for long- Emily Barbaro-Sant, Mosta
I first came in contact with Dr Tabone when one of my daughters complained about short eyesight. My husband and I took her to him and he could find nothing wrong with her eyes. He told us straight and plain that she didn’t need to wear glasses. Later we found out that her friend started wearing them and our daughter felt like having a pair herself too. Typical of certain children! Later I used to meet him at AŻAD of which he was founder, and also during my years in politics as PRO, secretary general and vice president of the Nationalist Party Women’s Movement (MNPN). During his tenure of office as President of Malta, Dr Tabone and his wife Maria never missed religious celebrations at the Mdina Monastery Church which my late husband Arthur as coordinator of the cause of M. Adeodata Pisani, used to organise to promote devotion towards her. Way back in 1991, when we were preparing for the exhumation of the remains of Adeodata Pisani, my husband was explaining what this entails to the congregation present. He also mentioned the fact that on the day, we would need the services of a medical doctor to identify the remains. The celebration over, President Tabone went straight to my husband offering his services. However, this was not to be as it turned out later that the Maltese Curia had its own ad hoc medical team.
As for Fr Peter, this lovable humble priest, he also had some connections with the cause of M. Adeodata Pisani. Often, my husband invited him to say Mass either at the monastery church or in one of the parishes in Malta. At the time, we were also being asked about an English version of Adeodata’s biography. My husband discussed the possibility of asking Fr Peter to do it with the then Abbess Sr M. Giustina Bonello. He then spoke to Fr Peter who agreed to do it. After a few weeks, Fr Peter asked my husband to go over to him to see what he had written up till then. He named his writing The Maltese Nun. It was on one of these occasions that Fr Peter told my husband how disappointed he was to be told by a prominent person during a reception at the University that working on the beatification of a cloistered nun was a waste of time. He never mentioned who this person was. My husband met Fr Peter a few times at his residence in Valletta and at the farmhouse on the University campus. Although a person of such great intelligence, he used to discuss things relative to M. Adeodata Pisani with my husband, without any hesitation. This showed his great humility. My husband passed away in January 2001 when Fr Peter had not yet finished his script. It seems that since then Fr Peter stopped work on his writings.
On the feast of Blessed Adeodata (February 25, 2002), I was invited to speak about her on UTV. During the programme, Fr Peter was asked to intervene and I was happy to hear him say that soon Adeodata’s biography in English was going to be published. In December 2010, I met Fr Peter during a reception and asked him when he was going to publish The Maltese Nun. In his usual shy and unique smile, he replied that he hadn’t finished it yet “because Arthur is no longer here to remind me”. But he promised to send me a print out of what he had done. Which he did.
Dr Tabone and Fr Peter are no longer physically with us but their achievements and memory will linger for long.
May God grant them peace and give them the reward reserved for those who did not hide the extraordinary talents bestowed upon them by their Creator or compromise with their Christian beliefs. These two multi-faceted figures practised them for the good of mankind.