While watching a recent edition of Xarabank, I couldn’t help appreciating the always charismatic, with that mellow voice, Mgr Victor Grech, director of Caritas.

I will always cherish the time that I spent at the Seminary when Mgr Grech was our rector. Surrounded with intellectuals such as Louis Borg Manchè, Louis Galea, John Buttigieg, Oliver Friggieri, Albert Marshall, Lino Farrugia, Anthony Debono, Robert Gatt, etc. the rector introduced other new experiences for the students, apart from the usual academic subjects, perhaps also to change the perception that the Seminary was not only for the formation of priests.

The students were given the chance to form part of the Seminarists’ choir and I was lucky to be chosen after the auditions conducted by none other than the great Fr Albert Borg.

I remember the day when the choir performed at St John’s Co-Cathedral for the inauguration of the new church organ. Sports was also given a new dimension and we took part in a football tournament while an annual sports day was held at the St Joseph Institute, Ħamrun.

Before leaving the Seminary, Mgr Grech advised us that the world outside was different and difficult and his reflection was to take life as it comes. Thank you again for what you have done as rector at the Seminary and for what you have been doing as director of Caritas. Ad multos annos.