A few weeks ago I wrote a letter to Archbishop-elect Paul Cremona who is stepping in your shoes.

This time I felt I owed you a letter because after 30 years of “service” to the Church, this is not a case of off with the old and on with the new.

Your Grace, through your years as Archbishop you have taught the Maltese a lot but mostly you have taught us about faith and prayer. You have instilled into us the confirmation that religious propaganda may indeed have its place but there is no way on earth that it can ever confer faith.

The effectiveness of propaganda depends upon certain persuasive techniques which you so capably were able to perform but you showed us that faith, precisely because it is a gift of God, comes through contemplation and prayer. Faith can become anaemic and even die through abandoning Jesus for the worship of idols or material things.

Religion will be little more than empty formalism or vague sentimentality or the quest for security or a mere form of habit until man learns to welcome Jesus Christ into his life. Thank you for preaching these words to us for over 30 years.

Your Grace, what I admired most about you happened a few years ago, on the feast of St Paul, when you stepped inside

One television building and apologised profusely for the sins others made years before. It is indeed a person of greatness who shows redemption for sins not of his own making.

Last year I was very lucky to go on a pilgrimage to Cascia where St Rita of the Impossible was born and bred.

The local council of Valletta was honoured to have you with us nearly all the time.

It was during our stay there that I realised what a sense of humour you had.

Then came the next part: the thing I dreaded most came to pass. I lost my passport and it took me three quarters of an hour to find it.

Guess who kept the plane waiting for the three quarters of an hour so her majesty could board it. You, only you. For my sake you asked the pilot to wait for me.

That makes you one of the most humble, kind, honest persons that you are because I know that you would have behaved in that fashion towards anyone.

I could go on praising your good self for hours on end but if so, it could probably fill the whole newspaper.

All I really want to say is thank you for doing the best you could to make Malta a Catholic united country.

Years may come and go and other Archbishops will come and go but there are many in Malta who will never forget your goodness.

May God and his Mother Mary bless you always.

Valerie Borg

Valletta