30 years is a long time.

To spend 30 years as head of the Catholic Church in Malta must not have been an easy matter for Archbishop Mgr Joseph Mercieca.

The Malta of the mid-1970s, when Mgr Mercieca took over as head of the Catholic Church, is different from the country we live in today.

The last three decades have seen Malta emerge from a young, post-Independence nation to a fully-fledged European Union member, but the changes that the country went through since Mgr Mercieca took over from Mgr Michael Gonzi go far beyond the political aspect.

Society – the way we live, the way we look at what is happening around us, the way we even regard the Catholic Church – has changed, and this evolution has not always been positive. Lifestyles “imported” from abroad, largely through the media, have influenced our local way of life and have radically changed the Malta we know today.

As President Edward Fenech Adami told Mgr Mercieca in a letter sent on Thursday, the day when a thanksgiving Mass was held to mark the end of his episcopate, Mgr Mercieca’s “prudence, wisdom, determination and serenity” held true in the bad and in the good times. And, in 30 years, there were many of them.

The Church, for example, went through a difficult period in the early 1980s when the then Labour government had wanted to close down its schools, leading to long weeks of unrest in the country. In the end, the schools remained open and are still open today, providing education to thousands of children from kindergarten to Sixth Form.

More recently, there were better times. The visit by Pope John Paul II to Malta in May 1990, the first ever by a pontiff, is probably the main highlight of Mgr Mercieca’s episcopate. His second visit, in May 2001, will be mostly remembered for the beatification of Dun Gorg Preca, Adeodata Pisani and Nazju Falzon.

Mgr Mercieca’s reserved character stopped him from making regular appearances in the media, and at a time when the number of newspapers, radio and TV stations are on the increase as the world of communications gains more importance in a globalised world, this may have kept the public from understanding the role of the Church and its teachings better.

But, on the other hand, Mgr Mercieca did not sit back and let events roll by without reacting. Instead, in his public appearances and mostly during “official” Masses, he was always ready to share his views on all that was taking place, including controversial subjects that were being discussed by the people, and he was not afraid to look at matters in a different way.

The public at large may not always have agreed with him and the way the Church viewed certain subjects. As said earlier, people think differently today when compared to 30 years ago, and the Church’s influence on their way of life is not as strong as it used to be.

What is sure however is that Mgr Mercieca remained consistent in his line of thinking from the first to the last day and this, of course, is something that cannot be said about everyone.

He was, in a way, our own collective conscience. And, many times, he spoke in a way that we wanted to avoid thinking about.

The presence of so many people last Thursday to bid farewell to Mgr Mercieca is a clear indication that the man has left his mark on the country.

The Malta Independent joins them in wishing farewell to Mgr Mercieca.