Matthew Vella
Despite efforts by Cana Movement founder Mgr Charles G. Vella, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated that a much hoped-for ‘International Ecumenical Centre on Studies on St Paul’ will not be based in Malta, but in Rome.
Mgr Vella was working on the establishment of the Pauline Centre and had presented his plan to the Maltese Bishop’s Conference with the collaboration of the Italian Pia Società San Paolo, the faculty of theology of the University of Malta and the Missionary Society of St Paul.
But just before the closing of the Pauline year, Mgr Vella received a letter from the Vatican Secreteriat of State, signed by undersecretary Mgr Fernando Feloni, that “the will of the Holy Father is to establish such centre at the Abbazia di San Paolo and the Pontifical Bible Institute” and that it was not feasible to hold a similar centre in Malta.
Mgr Vella’s reaction was one of both joy and sadness. “The idea has been taken up by Pope Benedict XVI, but I wished to see such a centre on the island of St Paul. But I gladly accept the ‘will of the Holy Father as coming from God.”
Mgr Vella said he was not surprised at the decision. In October 2008 he presented the project to the Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, Edmund Power, and the Italian Society of St Paul, Cardinal Cordero di Montezemolo, who praised the project and asked Vella to hold the centre in Rome.
“It seems that Rome was chosen and I have no regrets as I did not receive much support locally,” Vella said. “The centre would have upgraded the image of Malta as the island of St Paul and been a focal point for Catholics and non-Catholics on the study of the doctrine of the Apostle of the Gentiles.”
Mgr Vella wrote a letter to the Pope in appreciation of his will and support for the project, saying that funds were also expected from a large American catholic foundation. Mgr Vella also expressed this decision to Abbot Edmund Power, with whom his is collaborating.
Vella added that his project for an International Centre for Families in Nazareth is going ahead after 10 years, with Pope blessing the foundation stone during the Pontifical Mass he celebrated in Nazareth.
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