The Diocese of Gozo has inaugurated the new seat of its Ecclesiastical Tribunal in the building of the Lumen Christi Media Centre, Triq Fortunato Mizzi, Victoria.
Dr. Joseph Zammit, Judicial Vicar, said in his speech, “the idea that the Diocese of Gozo has a new seat for the Ecclesiastical Tribunal arose over time, and after the last three years this idea became a reality,” with the aim that the same Tribunal “has a place that protects as much as possible the confidentiality and security that the sensible work that unfolds in it deserves.”
He added that “the Tribunal serves a ministry of justice in truth with the greatest mercy towards injured persons, with wounds that are difficult to close,” and the ministry of the officers who serve in it “is one of charity.”
Msgr. Edward Xuereb, former Judicial Vicar, recalled that in the Tribunal “we see that we judges, all priests with direct contact with the people in the parishes, serve this ministry as an aspect of our ministerial priesthood – a fact that helps us as much as no other to understand the facts in a more penetrating way and apply the substantial right to the case at hand.”
In his closing speech, before blessing the new seat, the Bishop of Gozo Anton Teuma thanked all those who worked so that this transfer could be made in a short time to a suitable locality where the services can continue to be given in a professional manner.
The Bishop called the Tribunal “a hospital and a gymnasium that restores relationships, wounds and hurts.”
He wished that with this transfer to a place, better equipped both for those who work there and for those who make use of its services, the pastoral aspect of the Tribunal, which is there but is not so well known, can emerge more and more.
The seat houses new offices for the Judicial Vicar and the Chancellor of the Tribunal, as well as an Archive and a Meeting Room. The same building is also hosting a new office for the Safeguarding Commission of the Diocese of Gozo.
Photos: Diocese of Gozo/Anthony Grech