On Tuesday 1st March 2022 afternoon, His Excellency Msgr Alessandro D’Errico, Apostolic Nuncio for Malta and Libya, paid a visit to our Seminary on the occasion of the termination of his five-year term in Malta, Gozo, and Libya. He was welcomed by the community, formators, the Bishop of Gozo Msgr Anton Teuma, and the Apostolic Vicar Msgr Tarcisio Camilleri. This was his third visit to our Seminary in five years as the Pope’s Representative to our islands. This visit was marked by a sense of familiarity and joy, which were felt during the dinner as well as during the meeting with the community, formators, and Bishop Teuma. Msgr D’Errico conveyed words of encouragement to the seminarians as candidates for the priesthood, encouraging them to have a strong spirit of communion with the Bishop and the Pope. This spirit of communion consists mainly in understanding and sharing the same vision of the Church defined in Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation “Evangelii gaudium”. Msgr D’Errico shared some thoughts about a missionary Church that calls priests not to sit down but to be willing to get up and spread the joy of God’s love by the power of the Holy Spirit, whilst not being afraid of changes. Msgr D’Errico expressed his concern regarding the presence of adolescents and youths in the local churches’ pastoral activities. He also expressed the fact that a distinction between concerts of musical heritage and sacred liturgical music has to be made in our local churches since liturgical celebrations are an experience of a living Church and help in the People of God’s fellowship. Above all, the Nuncio urged our hearts to be filled with the joy of Christ and to be a credible witness to the beauty of the Gospel. As a sign of appreciation, the Seminary community presented the Nuncio with an image of the statue of St. Joseph, Patron of Ecclesiastical Diplomacy, which is venerated in the Seminary Chapel. Presently, Msgr D’Errico is ending his diplomatic ministry as a Nuncio. He was instrumental in communicating with the Holy See when the election of the new Bishop of Gozo took place two years ago, at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.
