Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/483475
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 MARCH 2015 10 MARTINA BORG HE worked closely with Pope Ben- edict XVI at the Vatican, and was possibly the Maltese prelate who was ever closest to any Pontiff. And yesterday Mgr Charles Scicluna was installed Archbishop of Malta, to take up the task that had worn out his predecessor, Mgr Pawl Cre- mona, OP, who resigned for health reasons. The weather was unfavourable, with a wind blowing rather wildly, and showers threatening, but Mgr Scicluna was greeted with fireworks and plenty of applause as he started his installation ceremony yesterday morning. Starting at his hometown in Lija, the ceremony led to his being offi- cially installed as Archbishop. Scicluna was greeted by a small crowd and Lija Mayor Magda Naudi presented him with a bouquet which he then placed at the foot of the stat- ue of the Saviour, where Scicluna led those gathered in prayers. He then headed to Rabat, for his first stop at the Franciscan church of Our Lady of Good Health, where he met members of various volun- tary organisations and some sick people, pausing for a short prayer in front of a statue of Our Lady of Good Health. The third stop was at St Dominic's Church, where a large crowd await- ed him. Scicluna was greeted warm- ly by Archbishop emeritus Paul Cre- mona and the two prayed in silence at the grotto of Our Lady under the church. Scicluna then moved on to St Paul's Grotto, which has been vis- ited by both Benedict and his prede- cessor as Pontiff, John Paul II. There he was met with the combined L'Isle Adam and Count Roger bands, and the new leader of the church in Mal- ta also prayed to St Paul, the island's patron saint, credited with having brought Christianity to Malta when he was shipwrecked here in AD60. The bands then led Scicluna to his next stop, Ta' Giezu church, resplendent just last Thursday for the feast of St Joseph, and soon to be sombre for the Good Friday pro- News Scicluna vows to 'face off ARCHBISHOP Sciclu- na, son of Emanuel and Maria Carmela Scicluna, was born in Toronto, Canada on 15 May, 1959. He went to St Sebastian's primary school in Qor- mi, St. Joseph Technical School at Rahal Gdid and St Edward's College in Cottonera. Scicluna then furthered his edu- cation by studying law at the University of Malta and graduating as a law- yer in 1984 and after the appropriate training, was awarded Holy Orders in 1986. He has served in vari- ous parishes on the island and also held various positions at the Vatican, where he has also been selected presi- dent of a Vatican board hearing appeals in cleri- cal sex abuse cases. In the Vatican, he was the promoter of justice within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the leader- ship of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. Scicluna, 55, has served as Auxiliary Bishop since October 2012. In 2014, he was appointed Apostolic Administra- tor upon the resignation of Archbishop emeritus Paul Cremona. His work in prosecut- ing clerical sex abuse has been widely hailed. Addressing a conference on sexual abuse held in Vatican czar who became shepherd ARCHBISHOP Scicluna's coat of arms is inspired by one that is traditionally assigned to surnames. It includes a prancing horse and a silver half moon over a red back- ground as well as a golden rose surrounded in green. The red background is meant to symbolise Christ's passion and his cape covered in blood. "The white horse is reminiscent of St John the apostle's vision of Christ on a white horse," the Cu- ria said. The silver half-moon is a symbol of stability and of the Virgin Mary and the Church, and the golden rose is a further reminder of the Virgin Mary. The coat of arms also features a Maltese cross in the background. Scicluna's motto 'Fidilis et Verax' – faithful and true – is taken from the book of the Apocalypse. Solemn ingress The Archbishop's solemn in- gress into the cathedral is a tradi- tional ceremony that harks back to a time when bishops used to arrive at their new diocese, and after re- ceiving consecration or episcopal ordination, the Archbishop would then take possession of the dio- cese through a personally elected representative. The length of time taken by the new archbishop to enter the new diocese would have been deter- mined by various factors, such as difficulties inherent to travel at the time, as well as issues such as ben- efit accumulations when archbish- ops were nominated to more than one diocese at the same time. Things have changed consider- ably since then. Ceremony The ceremony is dictated in the Roman Pontifical or Pontificale Romanum, a Catholic liturgical book that contains the rites per- formed by bishops and the ingress has now become a part of the local church's imagination and tradi- tion, gaining various local tradi- tions that have become part and parcel of the ceremony along the way. On the eve of the ingress it is customary for the bishop to spend the night at the Dominican Or- der's convent in Rabat, where he would be invited for a meal. The next morning, the bishop would depart in a procession accompa- nied by his relatives and move on to the Augustinian order's con- vent of St Mark, where he would subsequently change into pontifi- cal clothing. The bishop would then walk through the Mdina gate followed by a procession of relatives and other members of the clergy. In the past, this journey was often undertaken on a mare as a clear reminder of Christ's entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey's back prior to the passion. The stational mass or official bishop's mass is then celebrated. The mass harks back to the earliest celebrations of the church in his- tory, and it has remained the high- point of the whole celebration as it represents the local church at its best, with the faithful surrounding their one shepherd. The last time this old ingress was completely followed was when Archbishop Michael Gonzi was installed in 1944, and it has now been simplified following a litur- gical reform, under Pope John Paul II in 1984. The essential parts of the rite have however all been preserved, and the stational mass has remained the centre of this celebration. 'Fidilis et Verax' Papal Nuncio Aldo Cavalli greets Archbishop Charles Scicluna