About fifteen mouths ago, the then newly elected President of the Victoria-Gozo Circle of the Catenian Association Mr Reg Fitzpatrick, embarked on a reach-out exercise to all parish priests in Gozo.

The initiative, supported both by the Bishop of Gozo Mgr Anton Teuma and the hierarchy of the Catenian Province in Malta, involved meeting each parish priest with the aim of exploring how Catenians can be of service to the parishes.

These meetings proved successful, and since then members of the Circle have been helping parish priests in the induction programme of foreign residents who have put themselves forward to be received in the Catholic Church.

Two members of the Circle, Dr Raymond Xerri and Salv Felice Pace are at present helping in Qala, Gharb and Ghasri parishes.

A number of parish priests have asked the Catenian Circle to help them find ways of integrating foreign residents into the parish irrespective of their faith. This is a work in progress

The Circle said that a special effort has been made to reach out to the youngsters of several parishes. The Catenian Association world-wide has an unrivalled record of helping youngsters financially to fulfil their dreams of doing voluntary work overseas.

The Association has a Bursary Fund based in the UK that disperses grants for this purpose. A few years ago a young man from Ghasri, Christopher Mintoff, was helped to go to Ethiopia for a missionary experience.

Recently a young lady from Zebbug, Melanie Cefai, a qualified nurse, spent a number of weeks in Guatemala working in remote villages. Reporting back to the Circle, she wrote “surely one of the most memorable and life changing experience I have had.”

Kercem Parish, under the leadership of Canon Brian Mejlaq, during his meeting with Catenians put forward a project involving about 25 youngsters who will be giving up part of their summer holidays working with the poor in Guatemala. 18 of them were helped and encouraged to fill in their forms requesting help to defray some of their expenses. Each one of them will be getting a share from a total of about 8000 euros given to the Circle from the Bursary Fund, the first time that such a large group from Malta has benefited from this fund.

This Sunday, the 2nd of July, His Eminence Cardinal Mario Grech, will be celebrating the 6pm Mass at Kercem Parish Church. This will be followed by a visual presentation of work in the parish in the last years, the inauguration of a Youth Centre and finally the presentation of a cheque to each young man and woman by the President of the Circle, Reg Fitzpatrick

For further information about the Catenians to Gozo please contact the President by email at raymond.c.xerri@gmail.com

Photo: Circle President Reg Fitzpatrick – Staff Nurse Melanie Cefai – Province Director Steve Fenech

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