When Pope Benedict visited Malta
Pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday at the age of 95he spent almost eight years leading the Catholic Church before choosing to resign in 2013.
For many Maltese, the highlight of his papacy was a 27 hour visit to the island between April 17 and 18, 2010.
The late Pope, who was born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, flew to Malta just one day after he turned 83.
He was greeted with enthusiasm wherever he went: people turned up in their hundreds, particularly in Pahal Didid and Kalkara, from where the late Pope boarded a catamaran for his crossing of the Port il -Large, accompanied by a flotilla of almost 100 small boats.
Several recall the Valletta Waterfront filled with around 10,000 young people who waited for the arrival of Benedict for around four hours.
Once he landed on the shore, he told the young people gathered there that other nations could learn from the Christian example of Malta.
On the first day here, he met the political leadership of Malta at the Palace before being driven to the Church of St. Paul in Rabat.
In Saint George Square, children sang Happy Birthday to the pontiff in four languages as he waved from the Palace balcony, praising them for their enthusiasm.
In Rabat, he prayed in the cave of St. Paul and addressed the Maltese missionaries on the parapet of the church.
Under the scandal
That was the third visit to Malta by the head of the Roman Catholic Church and it took place at the height of the clerical sexual abuse scandal.
Earlier that monthLawrence Grech, who claimed that he was sexually abused by priests in the Santa Venera orphanage, had asked the Pope to issue an apology.
He had said that Benedict should use his trip to Malta to apologize to the local victims of child abuse, as he had done to the Irish.
Benedict’s visit actually made international news when the pontificate had an unscheduled meeting with the victims.
The meeting with the Maltese victims at the Apostolic Mission lasted 35 minutes. The victims later said it was a “healing experience”.
It was a historic first for the pontiffs and seemed aimed at reinforcing the Pope’s expressions of displeasure. the Holy See he described the Pope’s meeting with the victims as deeply moving.
50,000 strong crowd
A little while before, the Pope had led a mass for around 50,000 faithful in the Floriana church.
Recalling that event many years later, the artistic director Carlo Schembri, who was responsible for designing and coordinating the background for that papal visit, he said Times of Malta that the chairs that the pontiffs and 700 members of the clergy would sit on were made from recycled cardboard that serves.
“I remember that I was talking to Bishop Charles Scicluna and I told him that I was concerned about the rain since the seats were made of cardboard. He told me: ‘The Pope said it will not rain.’ I believed him.”
And although there was heavy rain in the early hours of April 18, the sun came out by the time the stitch was expected in the granaries.
Ratzinger was also the Pope who canonized Rev. George Precawho made him Malta’s first saint during a rain-soaked ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in June 2007.
During the mass in Fnara in 2010 he referred to the saint, and encouraged the Maltese priests to use Don George as their model.
“Dun George was a priest of remarkable humility, kindness, sweetness and generosity, deeply devoted to prayer and with a passion for communicating the truths of the Gospel. Let him serve as a model and an inspiration for you, while you strive to fulfill the mission you received to feed the Lord’s flock”.
You can see the highlights of the visit here:
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