MALTA
Malta Independent
Vatican wanted Mgr Scicluna in Rome, Mgr Mercieca wanted him here – parents of new archbishop
Duncan Barry
Saturday, 21 March 2015
New Arcbishop Mgr Charles Scicluna had to decide whether to work closely with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – who later became Pope – or remain here at the request of the then Archbishop of Malta Joseph Mercieca. This after Mgr Scicluna ended his studies in Rome back in the 1990s, his parents said in an interview.
“At the time, Cardinal Ratzinger asked our son Charles to work at his side but Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Mercieca wanted him here,” his father recalled. But with his legal background, Mgr Scicluna chose to go to Rome, eventually becoming the Vatican’s chief prosecutor in abuse cases when Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope.
Speaking to The Malta Independent inside their Lija home before their son’s installation ceremony, his parents – Manwel and Maria Carmela – and their other three children, said that Charles showed interest in priesthood at a very young age.
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