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Charles Buttigieg
Ilkoll Aħwa Fi Kristu. Ġużeppi Mercieca: Memorji
Klabb Kotba Maltin. Malta 2014
382 pages

Two thousand and fourteen being the year in which both Eddie Fenech Adami’s autobiography Eddie – My journey and Archbishop Ġużeppi Mercieca’s Memorji have been published, it is perhaps timely to consider the second decade of the 21st century as the ‘decade of memorable Maltese autobiographies’. One should not forget that it was during 2013 that many reliable and authoritative biographies of the late Prime Minister Dom Mintoff were also published. Anton Buttigieg – Mill-Album Ta’ Ħajti has also been published in one volume quite recently.

Mgr Mercieca’s Ilkoll Aħwa Fi Kristu – Memorji falls under the particular category of autobiographies with a difference. The readers who have already, like myself, read Mercieca’s Memorji will definitely agree with me as to this statement.

The book is written in the first person singular but was actually written or rather co-authored by Charles Buttigieg who was in many ways the lay right-hand man of the Archbishop Emeritus of Malta for many years. In fact, Buttiġieġ was PRO of the archdiocesan Curia from 1987 to 2009 and, therefore, worked next to the archbishop. He was the official face of the institutional side of the local Church during a long part of Mercieca’s episcopate.

Mgr Mercieca’s autobiography fills, in my opinion, a gap that has been felt for quite a long time. It is a known fact that during the first decade or so of Archbishop Mercieca’s episcopate, the relations between the State and the Church were definitely not the best. Relations being what they were, I believe it is healthy that Mgr Mercieca was courageous and at the same time kind enough to find time to put pen to paper and write down the experience he has been through as he was at the helm of the Maltese Church.

Memorji help us to understand better the reasons behind certain squabbles between the Church and government

I, for one, believe that the life of Mgr Mercieca was to a certain extent the life of the Church in Malta. They are one and inseparable considering that in spite of the impression that he might have given at the beginning of his episcopal office, he was very much in charge. He was certainly in charge of the Church when Dom Mintoff was rocking the boat on the other end. As he himself states more than once in the book, during the troubling times our country went through in the late seventies and early eighties, he struggled to keep the balance.

Strangely enough, this was not the impression that many people in high places had of him. Apostolic Nuncio Pier Luigi Celata expressed this feeling to Mr Mercieca more than once, as the autobiography states. On the other hand Mgr Mercieca was very unpopular with the Labour Government from the outset.

More than half the book concentrates on the Church-State relations that clouded the episcopal office of the Gozitan-born prelate who was head of the Church in Malta practically from 1974, four years before Archbishop Michael Gonzi’s resignation up to 2006 when he was succeeded by Archbishop Paul Cremona.

Mgr Mercieca narrates his life as an Archbishop of Malta in a balanced and coherent manner. One finds Mgr Mercieca’s style in writing very much in continuity with the personality that comes across when one meets him or listens to a homily of his on TV or on radio.

Emotions aside, I still think there is a great amount of transparency in his narration of the transformation that unfolds in his relationship with Dom Mintoff as both men age and times change for the better. Turning the pages into the 20th chapter I almost felt that the book was about to begin again. It might be the case that a space in time elapsed between the writing of the book up to this part and what follows next. Having read about the events leading to the beatification of the Venerable Adeodata Pisani, OSB, I thought I could sense a lapsus as I noticed that the late Marquis Arthur Barbaro-Sant and his wife were not even mentioned.

The third section of the book deals with issues of a pastoral, moral and theological nature as one expects in the autobiography of a Christian prelate. There is no mincing of words but the virtue of prudence which when translated into profane language becomes the art of diplomacy is what characterised Mgr Mercieca’s narrative.

No complete reading of the history of our islands would have been rendered possible without Mgr Mercieca’s perception of events. In our modern times when the Church and State are becoming more distinct from each other, Mgr Mercieca’s autobiography may not be fully appreciated. Having said this, however, Memorji that are now accessible to the Maltese public will help us to under-stand better the reasons behind certain squabbles that took place between the Church and the government.

Memorji testifies to the fact that in spite of all that took place, Mgr Mercieca, tal-Mewta, as we know him in Gozo, was a balanced diplomat and kind priest at heart who had the good of Malta and its people to his heart.