MALTA
Malta Independent
Andrew Azzopardi
Monday, 20 October 2014
As I said in my previous blog, ‘A Church in melt-down, a Renault 4 and a pair of binoculars’, I consider myself a judicious practicing Catholic.
I must say that an element of despondency did catch up on me following the news that Archbishop Cremona now Emeritus had ‘hung up his boots’.
Eight years ago the hype around this Dominican friar appointed Archbishop was enormous – the expectations even bigger. Do you remember his smile when he played football with the boys at his perfectly orchestrated initiation, the feasts, the bands that were mobilized and the incalculable events that were organised?
The devoted were hopeful.
After Archbishop’s Mercieca tenure, people believed that Cremona was not only a breath of fresh air but the Maltese Church’s renewal in persona.
I did interview him a couple of times on my programme Ghandi xi Nghid and he came across as an extremely humble and affable person. I remember his eyes glittering, happy and completely at ease speaking about Jesus but when it was the Church and institutional issues he seemed to fade away into cavity.
As they say, ‘il-gurnata minn fil-ghodu turik’.
That exquisite, natural, soothing smile started evaporating rapidly.
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