Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/656590
5 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 23 MARCH 2016 News words who showed strength in silence across, even opening two separate court cases against the govern- ment. "Mercieca also had a great interest in the public and in the needs and requests they made," Borg said, highlighting the Arch- bishop's willingness to offer as- sistance in as short a period of time as possible throughout the 20 years he had worked with him. Borg recalled that Mercieca had taken it upon himself to strengthen the Catholic Church's contact with the general public by strengthening structures like Radio RTK to further emphasize concepts of pluralism and open- ness. Mercieca was born in Victoria, Gozo, in November 1928, and he entered the Gozo seminary to study for the priesthood but con- tinued his studies in Rome at the Gregorian university and the Lat- eran university. He was ordained in 1952, and in 1958, was chosen to be the rector of the Gozo Major Seminary. In 1969, Mercieca was appointed, by Pope Paul VI, to judge the Roman Rota, the high- est appellate tribunal of the Ro- man Catholic Church. In 1974, Pope Paul VI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Malta to assist the ailing Archbishop Mi- chael Gonzi. After Archbishop Gonzi retired in 1976, Bishop Mercieca succeeded him. He spent the next 30 years as the spiritual leader of the Archdio- cese of Malta. Mercieca retired aged 75, in 2006. The coffin of Archbishop Guzeppi Mercieca was carried into St John's Co-Cathedral on Monday