Farewell to the priest with a humble smile

Yesterday morning this website announced to its readers the demise of Can. John Scicluna, a 78-year old priest from our parish and canon of our collegiate chapter.  St George’s presbyterium has lost many of its clergy in the last few years, of course due to old age and illnesses.  Can. Scicluna passed away at the Gozo General Hospital, where he was taken for intensive care a fortnight ago.

Dun Ġwann, as many knew him, was born to Anthony u Maria Carmela Grech on 21 March 1931, in a family of ten, of which two died shortly after they were born.  He was baptised at St George’s parish church the day after.  He is a relative of Mgr Ġużeppi Cefai, who was the confessor of Karmni Grima, and cousin to Mgr Carmelo Scicluna, treasurer of our collegiate chapter.  His father, Anton, was also the cousin of Patri Akkursju Xerri ofm, mostly known as the author of the Innu Popolari Lill-Kbir Martri San Ġorġ, and also for being the founder and first editor of Għawdex, the first magazine about Gozo which later became the monthly Il-Ħajja f’Għawdex.  In fact, Ġwann’s older brother, Tumas, followed on Patri Akkursju’s steps and also became a friar of the Franciscan Minors, popularly known as Ta’ Ġieżu, and later went to Rome to continue studies in Dogmatic Theology.  He was for some time guardian at the Valletta convent, and died in 1986 at the age of 61.  Their sister, Doris, also joined the nuns of the Franciscans of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by Madre Margerita Debrincat.  Besides Sr Luisetta, which is her religious name, another sister is still alive, Maria Assunta, who until last month was still living with Dun Ġwann in their home at Strada Palma, just across the nuns’ monastery, which happens to be the casa madre of the Franciscan Congregation of the Sacred Heart.

After studying at the Gozo Lyceum, young John entered the Bishop’s Seminary at Victoria and started his course of formation towards priesthood.  On April 15, 1956, he was ordained priest, and on the 29 of that month he celebrated his First Solemn High Mass at St George’s parish church.  In 1976 Dun Ġwann was made one of the new canons of St George’s collegiate.  However, though a priest of St George’s and a Ġorġjan at heart, Dun Ġwann spent a long part of his priestly ministry serving the diocese elsewhere.  From 1957 he was the chaplain of the Sisters of Charity at the Bishop’s Conservatory, to which was annexed a boarding school to help support the orphans.  He remained their spiritual director until the congregation moved its residence to Munxar because of the declining number of vocations.  Can. Scicluna’s mission in the educational field included also teaching itself.  For some years he was a teacher at the diocese’s minor seminary, and he also taught Italian at St Mary’s Grammar School, the Government’s secondary school for girls in Victoria, which only recently became known as Agius de Soldanis Secondary.

However, Dun Ġwann’s ministry was mainly characterized by his complete dedication to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  He spent hours hearing Confession, not only at St George’s parish church, but almost in all churches of Gozo as well as at the Major Seminary.  When his health did not allow him any longer to travel from one place to the other to administer this sacrament of God’s love, or even to participate regularly, as he willingly did, in the collegiate chapter’s liturgies, he resigned himself to at least being available for Confession as much as he could at his parish church.  There, penitents were sure to find either him or Can. Joe Meljak, who also died recently, in 2008.  Any time you visited the basilica, you would find Dun Ġwann in his confessionary or otherwise at the sacristy.  And the queues of people waiting to go to Confession were always full! 

People seemed to arrive from everywhere on the island to go to Dun Ġwann for Confession.  Even the young sought him for Confession and found in him a priest with a “young” heart, understanding their tensions and considerate of their feelings.  His smile and caring words, ready to empathize rather than judge, attracted them to the sacrament.  He was, in a way, the Curè d’Ars of St George’s, which is known as the most popular sacramental church on the island.  Dun Ġwann’s departure, therefore, is the departure of a great and beloved confessor, a reminder for us all to appreciate more the beauty of this Sacrament of Reconciliation, to which he invited everyone through his humble smile which, as many who knew him would say, will never fade away…

In 2006, at St George’s basilica, Can. John Scicluna celebrated his fifty years of priesthood, together with his relatives and friends, among them his nephew, archpriest emeritus Mgr Salv Borg.  Already then he was unable to walk steadily and soon would start using a stick to help him stroll.  However this did not dishearten him, and you could often meet him, walking up slowly but courageously Triq Mons. Giuseppe Farrugia on his way to St George’s.  Even when he was persuaded to stay at home, especially because of complications in his eyesight, he remained the optimistic and courageous man everyone knew.  You could always find him sitting behind the large window of his house in Strada Palma, having a word with his sister or listening to the radio, or otherwise conversing with all those who stopped to talk to him.  Many penitents, in fact, still went to him for confession or spiritual direction, even when he was bound to his chair at home.

Can. John Scicluna was taken to hospital fifteen days ago, never to return home again.  Health complications suggested that the end was not too far!  He died around 9.15am, yesterday, 12 February 2010, surrounded by all those who loved him.  He was about to turn 79 next month.  At 2.30pm today his earthly remains will be transferred from the Gozo General Hospital to the church of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Palm Street, Victoria, where at 3.15pm the Office of the Dead will be said, and then the collegiate chapter and clergy of St George’s basilica will accompany the coffin through Republic Street, up to Independence Square and into St George’s Square.  The solemn Funeral Mass at 4.00pm will be presided by H.L. Mgr Mario Grech, the bishop of Gozo and dean of the collegiate chapter.  Leħen il-Belt Victoria will broadcast the concelebrated Mass.

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