Pope John Paul II
Pilgrim in the footsteps of St. Paul
SPEECHES

09.05.2001
at SOCIETY CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
ENGLISH
Address of welcome by the
Society Of Christian Doctrine
Superior General Victor Delicata
at the SDC Centre,
Blata L-Bajda ­ Hamrun

Your Holiness, Divine Providence has again favoured us by allowing you to be among us in Malta, the Island of St Paul. Now, in the name of all the Society of Christian Doctrine, I welcome Your Holiness here in this Auditorium at our Mother House. As Members of the Society of Dun Gorg Preca, whom Your Holiness has declared Blessed this morning, we are glad to be gathered so close around you.

Blessed Gorg Preca, our Founder, whose remains Your Holiness has just venerated in our Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, has long instilled in us all a devoted attachment to the person of the Pope. Our Society has always cherished this devotion ever since its beginning in 1907, and, in its early days up to 1932, the Society was known as Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pope.

Several prayers and hymns which we commonly use bring out the love and filial devotion of Dun Gorg towards the Pope. Every Sunday afternoon, when the SDC Members gather in their several Centres to pray the celebration, called The Union, we bow reverently before the Pope's image after the Superior's invitation: "This is the Pope, our father, and head of the whole Church!" On the 7th day of each month, the Founder wants us also to profess our submission to the Pope in faith and to work for the prosperity of the Church entrusted to him.

Indeed, this attachment stems from the deep faith experiences of Dun Gorg. He was convinced that the successors of St Peter, like Peter himself, are empowered to recognise and identify that unique personal presence of God which enables them to overcome all human shortcomings, and that power of God which made Jesus, his only-begotten Son, the Chosen One, the Anointed, and the Saviour.

With an obvious echo to chapter 16 of Matthew's Gospel, which Dun Gorg surely prayed and contemplated deeply, he gave us the salutation: Salve Papa Noster; Salve Petra fidei, Salve Coeli janitor (We greet you our Father, Rock of faith, and Heaven's gate-keeper). For Dun Gorg, and for us Members of his Society, the Pope remains always a sure point of reference in faith and a "rock" of unity. No wonder Dun Gorg prayed Christ to look after the Pope "Your righthand man and the true cultivator of the Christian vineyard".

His deep faith experience made Blessed Gorg Preca an apostle dedicated to evangelisation, a mission so very close to the heart of Your Holiness since the beginning of your Petrine ministry when you strongly urged everybody:"Aprite, anzi splancate, le porte a Cristo!" (Open wide all doors to Christ!) Our Founder, and Your Holiness, want us to strengthen the faith of our fellow Christians everywhere. That's why from the depths of our heart we proclaim the dynamism of our Society in the words of the prayer: Magister Utinam Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus. This is a charism which binds us with the very mission of Peter himself: to know Christ Jesus, to bring others to believe in Him and to accept Him as Lord and Saviour.

In filial relationship to St Peter's successor, Dun Gorg looks at the bond with the Pope as a sure sign of salvation: Noah's children were saved because they were in their father's ark. This intimate love and veneration is emphatically highlighted by the words our Founder repeated so frequently and so dearly: Ego cum Papa semper (I'm always with the Pope).

We thank you, then, Holy Father, for being such a steadfast and sure herald of Christ, the Risen Redeemer of humanity. Today we look at your person and, joyfully and lovingly, we salute you with the words our Founder gave us: Salve Papa Noster; Salve Petra fidei, Salve Coeli janitor et Dominus sit tecum!