During the weekend, St George’s parish, Victoria, continued the commemorative events of the fiftieth anniversary of the dignity of a basilica, given to this ancient parish church of Gozo in September 1958 through Pope Pius XII’s decree Merito dilaudatur templum.
The anniversary celebrations started last September with a High Mass at the basilica, where the original manuscript of the basilica decree, dated the 6th of September 1958, was exhibited. A special handstamp by Maltapost plc added to the festivities on October the 5th, the day when, fifty years before, archpriest Mgr Michael Cefai announced to the faithful that St George’s parish church had been endowed with the special title. The public may still buy a set of commemorative postcards from the parish office.
Several covering articles on local journals followed in the last two months of 2008, making the public more aware of the centrality of such an event in the development of Gozo’s ecclesiastical history. The new parish wall-calendar for 2009, which has just been published and distributed, door to door, to the community’s families, also features interesting old photos from fifty years ago.
Pope Pius XII had died very suddenly in October 1958. Malta and Gozo mourned the Pontiff’s loss, and the bells of St George’s ‘new’ basilica, the first one established in a Gozitan parish, were the first in Gozo to herald the sad news. A huge cataphalque, the English word for tubru, was built in the main aisle as the central piece of a solemn funerary liturgy for the repose of the soul of the beloved demised pope. Due to this, the organisers had to postpone the celebrations of the new basilica to January 1959.
Fifty years ago from yesterday, on Sunday, the 11th of January 1959, a special liturgical function led by Bishop Mgr Joseph Pace took place at the basilica in the early hours of the afternoon. Hundreds of parishioners gathered to thank God for the honour which had been bestowed by the highest authority of the Church on their beloved parish church. The Curia’s Chancellor Mgr Guglielmo Grima, a fine Latinist of his time, solemnly read out Pope Pius XII’s bull and a special commemorative message by Archpriest Cefai followed. The liturgy ended with the partition of the Eucharistic Benediction by Bishop Pace.
A special edition of the journal Lehen il-Belt Vittorja was issued, featuring a detailed coverage of the main proceedings. Rabat’s own Mary Meylak and Hal Qormi’s Gorg Zammit both wrote special poems to honour the arrival of the new basilica title. The La Stella band added to the splendour of the occasion with a symphonic concert on Saturday, the 10th, at the Oratorju Don Bosco, under the direction of its musical director, Mro Edgar Lowell. In those times the musical society did not have its own hall to play in yet. The concert was repeated the day after, on Sunday the 11th, in the evening, at Pjazza t-Tokk, or Independence Square.
Fifty years after those joyful celebrations, the 11th of January fell again on a Sunday. On Saturday a large full-colour rectangular banner was erected at the right-hand side of the basilica’s façade, advising everyone that between 2008 and 2010 the parish is remembering with gratitude the great events of fifty years ago. And why 2010 as well? It was in the last weeks of 1960 that the new main altar was erected, in the place where a few years later the Bernini-canopy replica was raised. The banner has been designed by Richard Grech.