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Pastors and Priests of St.Cajetan Parish

It should be said that apart from the interest and devotion of the faithful, it is the disposition of the Pastors and Priests and their attitude that attracts or repels the parishioners. Hamrun has had quite a few dynamic church leaders through the decades. Information about some is lacking but there are others who did more than their share in the spiritual, moral and liturgical promotion of Hamrun.
We will start with the two Bishops involved in the kick start of the Parish, then we will follow the Pastors in chronological order. Last but not least, we will consider the contribution made by some priests who went out of their way to promote our parish.
To do this the easiest way is to go into the Sacristy and look at the small canvases hanging on the walls. Some of the latter day Pastors have not been added, so we will have to rely on just the written information gathered.

We have mentioned How Bishop Gaetano Pace Forno left his indellible mark on Hamrun by giving it a Patron Saint of his namesake. We have also dwelt on the controversies of the time about this choice and how he appeased the faithful by contributing towards the altar in the sanctuary. He was was an Augustinian from Rabat and was ordained Bishop of Malta in 1857 and kept this office till he died in 1874. Painting Right....

Bishop Count Carmelo Scicluna had the spiritual welfare of the people of Hamrun at heart. It was he who insisted that the work on the church stop as soon as it was viable to receive the faithful and leave the extras like the dome and embellishments for afterwards. He was installed in 1875, opened and blessed the church the same year.

Consecration of the church by Bishop Don Mauro Caruana was undertaken on the 26th September 1930. He was the one who installed Fr.Fortunat Valletta as the first Pastor. He was of the Benedictine order and ordained and appointed Bishop of Malta in 1914 till he died in 1943, being succeeded by Archbishop (then still Bishop) Michael Gonzi who inaugurated the Dome in the 1950's. Painting Right.....

Fr.Fortunat Valletta who was from Birkirkara, as we have seen, was already ministering to the spiritual needs of the faithful since 1859 from the small chapel of Porto Salvo. It was he who saw the population increase and the need for a much bigger temple. He was in the middle of it all when the first committees were formed and the first petitions signed. It was not surprising that the Bishop installed him as the first Parish Priest (Pastor) of the new Parish of St.Cajetan. He served the Parish first as Vicar curate from 1881 till 1884 when he was installed as Pastor till his death in office in 1895. .....Painting Left.

Father Joachim (Dun Gwakkin) Grech did not last too long as Pastor of the St.Cajetan church because only three months after he took possession in 1896, he was transferred to Birgu as Archpriest of that Parish. He died in 1924. Picture Right.

Pastor Dun Guzepp Muscat from Rabat took possession on the 30th December 1897. He died in office 8th December 1928. .....Painting Left.

Pastor Dun Gejtanu Mifsud who had the namesake of the Patron, was from Valletta. He took possession on the 30th June 1929 and died in office 30th August 1933. Painting Right.

Pastor Dun Nerik (Fr.Henry) Cordina Perez was the first pastor from Hamrun. He was Pastor of Naxxar before being transferred to Hamrun. He took possession of the parish on the 19th August 1934. He was the driving force behind the building of the dome in the mid 1950's. He was made Canon of the Cathedral of Mdina on the 29th Sept. 1956 but died on the last day of 1956 just a day after installation. .....Painting Left.

Pastor Dun Mattew Chircop From Marsa. Ordained priest on the 19th June 1943. He served the Parish as a regular priest until he took possession as Pastor on the 22nd April 1957. He continued the work of his predecessor in embellishing the church. He became Canon of the Cathedral of Mdina on the 30th Dec.1979. He was still coming over to celebrate mass at St.Cajetan for the festa in 2006 when in his 90's. He passed away at 92 on July 20th 2008 Photo on Right.

Pastor Dun Guzepp Pace From Marsa. Was already serving as priest in the St.Cajetan Parish. Took possession as pastor on the 28th January 1979. He was in office when the Church celebrated its first centenary as a Parish. In 1991 became Archpriest of Floriana. When his term in Floriana was over, he came back to Hamrun and is now (2006) taking care of the Atocia Church. .....Photo Left.

Pastor Dun Pawl Camilleri was born in Floriana on the 30th April 1943. He was ordained priest on the 22nd March 1969 and took possession of the Parish on the 5th January 1992. Photo Right.

Pastor up to Nov 2008 Dun Pawl Fenech was born 13th September 1955 and celebrated his first Mass on the 11th July 1981.
Picture Left.

Fr.Henry Balzan is the latest priest to be appointed pastor of San Gejtanu parish church in Hamrun as of November 2008. He took possession of the parish on the 15th February 2009.
Born on November 1, 1963 in Hamrun and Baptized at San Gejtanu church, Fr.Balzan was ordained a priest in 1991. He has served in Chile and at Msida and Zabbar. Since the start he immersed himself in parish life, re-organizing the choir and other ministries. Picture Right......

Canon Dun Guzepp Vella (1874 - 1955) From Hamrun, was ordained priest 27th August 1899 and became Assistant Pastor 1904 - 1943. In between Pastors, he was twice Vicar Curate 1928 - 1929 and 1933 - 1934. He was made Canon of the Bormla collegiate on the 4th August 1934, but meantime still served with the clergy in St.Cajetan's. Painting Right.....

Saint George Preca. Born 12 February 1880 in Valletta, He moved to Hamrun with his family while still a child. Here he went through elementary school and the Lyceum, after which he started attending the Bishop’s seminary. He began writing a Rule in Latin for use in a planned society of Permanent Deacons while still a student. After his ordination on the 22nd December 1906, he modified his idea of the society and began working with a group of young male catechists, including the Servant of God Eugene Borg, and they formed the beginning of the Society of Christian Doctrine. On the 2nd February 1907 they met for the first time at the church of Porto Salvo in Hamrun and on the 7th March they rented a small room close to the parish church of St.Cajetan for regular meetings. The Society's motto is represented by the letters M.U.S.E.U.M. Magister Utinam Sequator Evangelium Universus Mundus! (Master, that the whole world would follow the Gospel!) dedicated to bringing the Bible and theology to lay people.

He caused quite a stir with his plan to educate lay men and women, and send them out to proclaim God's word to anyone who would listen in those days. Educating the working class was so revolutionary that Father George was even accused of insanity and ordered to shut down his operation for a while.
On 7 March 1907, Fr.Preca and his group of men began to meet regularly at a rented room in St.Joseph High Road, Hamrun. Then one day, Fr.George came among his group and sent away the married ones. (Actually a few decades afterwards these formed an affiliate group and called themselves 'Co-operators')
In 1910 Fr.Preca started another innovation, a female section of the Society. The first two Superiors were Eugenio Borg and Giannina Cutajar.
At the beginning, the response of the Church authorities in Malta to Fr.Preca's initiative was mixed, but with God’s help the Bishop of Malta approved the Society and its Rule in 1932 and society catechist centers sprung up in many parishes, teaching young and old, and giving children a place to stay out of trouble. Today there are about 110 Centres around Malta and Gozo. The Society today also has overseas Centres in Australia, Sudan, Kenya, Peru, Great Britain, and Albania.
Apart from being the founder of the society and delivering his frequent popular outdoor sermons all over the island, Fr. George had a very good reputation as a confessor, a Sacrament which he celebrated for long hours day in day out at St.Cajetan church in Hamrun.
Fr.George died on the 26th July 1962 of natural causes. His relics are kept in the chapel of the Society's headquarters at Blata l-Bajda, Hamrun.
He was Beatified on the 9th May 2001 with two other Maltese 'Venerables' on the Floriana granaries by Pope John Paul II himself who later went to the centre at Blata l-Bajda in Hamrun to visit the remains. His beatification miracle involved the healing of an irreversibly detached retina of a member of the Society. He was Canonized on the 3rd June 2007 at the Vatican by Pope Benedict XVI who had previously approved a second miracle attributed to his intercession.
In the Parish Church of St.Cajetan one can find a real relic of St.George Preca - A vial full of his blood.
(Please see ‘MUSEUM’ in the section about Institutions in Hamrun)

Dun Guzepp Cachia. Ordained priest with first solemn Mass celebrated at Hamrun on 2nd April 1949. By far the most active priest of all times in the parish church of St.Cajetan. Working behind the lines he did an enormous variety of work for the embellishment and upkeep of God’s temple and also for the enhancement of liturgy both in Hamrun and around the islands. Sadly this was work for which he was never recognized or appreciated by many even after his death.

Even before he took Holy Orders, he was already active in his efforts for the liturgy. Being a member of Dun Gorg’s M.U.S.E.U.M. during the tenure of Fr.Nerik Cordina Perez as pastor, he used to help him organize the singing of Christmas carols by the children of the group, also the general liturgy by a choir of altar boys. His greatest feat in favour of the liturgy was organizing the Hamrun Choir. This he did in the same year he was ordained and in the face of the archaic attitudes that still existed in Malta with the segregation of sexes in church. Sad to say, the interest in choral work began to wane in Hamrun in the 1980’s and 1990’s and towards the end of Fr Cachia’s life, this seems to have robbed him of the consolation he needed to keep going.

While organizing and nurturing his choir Fr.Cachia was also taking care of the coordination, maintenance and also administration of the material needs of the church.When the Choir needed a more decent place for rehearsal it was he who drew up the plans through an architect to extend a staircase and roof over one of the side aisles of the church. He rolled up his sleeves and worked with members mixing concrete, plastering and preparing the best of rehearsal spaces one could build.

Below - With Pastor Chircop, Oreste and Dun Frans. During the anniversary celebrations for the Choir.

Above - Building the Choir Hall with Choir members.

He was in the background when it was time to coordinate architect, mason and builders for the raising of the new dome. He was there too, with his friend Chev.EmVin Cremona and others when the inside paintings and gilding were done. Repairs on the steeples and soon after on the dome in the 1980’s had him organizing meetings between architect and builders and taking care of financing. One of the last headaches he went through was the planning of the beautiful ‘Antiporta’ or inner door, which had to incorporate an old complicated sculptured pelmet that already existed. This energetic priest even took care year after year to organize a crew of young people to put up the heavy outside decorations for Hamrun’s feast of its patron St.Cajetan.
Not only does this priest deserve recognition in the town where he gave his all, but also a monument, perhaps in a prominent position near the church he loved so much.
Please see ‘Hamrun Choir’ in section about Music in Hamrun.

Dun Frans Camilleri. Another versatile priest centred in Hamrun who though outwardly old fashioned in his attire (he was still wearing his cassock outside in the street after most of the others had switched to ‘clergy’ garb post Vatican II) was one of the most open minded people in the parish. He was a very gentle person to communicate with and through my personal experience the best priest one could meet in a confessional. He was also the humblest while celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass.
Born in Marsa on the 29th January 1919, he studied at St.Paul’s school and at the Archbishop’s seminary before being ordained priest in 1943. He taught Maltese at St.Aloysius College and at the Seminary between 1944 and 1964. He was an active member, secretary and editor of ‘Ghaqda ta' qari tajjeb’ for a long while, and editor for ‘Il-Huggiega’ and ‘Lil Hutna’. He was spiritual director for the Legion of Mary in 1956, for the St.Cajetan Band Club from 1943, and for the

Hamrun Spartans Soccer Club from 1946. He was also involved in the Emigrants Commission from 1950, the Malta Playing Fields Association from 1956 and the Chorus Melitensis from 1958. He was also on many important committees for organizing festivities within the parish as many contemporary lineups show.
He loved the Maltese language and this can be seen in his poetry which is still studied by Maltese students in many schools. He is well known all around the island for the lyrics he wrote for hymns to patron saints of villages. Three of these are dedicated to St.Cajetan, two of which were put to music one each by the band clubs. In May 1943 he became a member of the ‘Akkademja tal-Malti’ and was for a time on its committee. His writing style follows that of the Maltese National Poet Dun Karm Psaila, relating to Religion and Country. Not only did he publish whole collections of poems, hymns and essays over the years, but he was also called by the Liturgical commission to translate into Maltese all the hymns and sequences for the Maltese version of the Missal after the norms of Vatican II.
He was also one of the best photographers around and one can still find postcards and landscapes taken by him in publications and calendars. Many of these show his love for nature. He spent hours in public gardens, knew all the gardeners in charge and also dabbled a little in propagating exotic flowers. He also spent some time in craft work based on nature like making complicated plaques out of sea shells. Another of his closest friends was the Maltese tenor Oreste Kirkop. This shows that although he himself did not have a voice to boast about, classical music was in his blood too.

His last days were in stark contrast to his very active life. He was blinded by an inoperable brain tumor which finally took him for ever on the 6th December 1990.

His bust in bronze sits on a shelf in his honour in the hall of a primary school named after him in Hamrun.

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