Last Saturday, the parish community of Cospicua paid its last respects to Fr Joseph Bonello. Fr Bonello’s life commuted between the Bishop’s Curia in Floriana, where he held the post of vice-chancellor and his hometown parish.
Personally, I had got to know Dun Guzepp at the Archbishop’s Curia years back, when I approached his office to ask permission to undertake historical research for my doctoral thesis for which I had just enrolled at the Sorbonne University in France. In his capacity of vice-chancellor, he was the person responsible, together with the chancellor for the upkeep of a great wealth of historical documentation that is preserved at this place. He was always of great help. He did not just help me by literally going into the archives, climbing up the library scaffolding to bring me the documents and old registers but also by indicating documents, which he had encountered during the occasional look that he used to give to church registers.
His love for the history of his hometown enticed him to search in the archives for new and unknown information about his beloved parish church. It was not a rare occasion that when one visited him at his office at the Curia, one would find him at his desk full of books and he would be in an inclined position with an old register in hand, reading through its Latin folios to discover new things about Bormla’s church history. Moreover, he had the rare humbleness to share his vast accumulated historical knowledge with fellow researchers.
In my regards, he was of great assistance, always ready to answer my assiduous queries. For such help I would like to express my great thanks. Then, when I became part of the University of Malta’s lecturing staff and eventually Director of the Mediterranean Institute, I took advantage of my friendship with Dun Guzepp to ask him to help my students with their research. He also did it with an expression of great kind heartedness.
With Dun Guzepp, I shared a common interest, the love of our Maltese history. Moreover, as my doctoral thesis was on the parish community of Cospicua, his hometown, this increased the bond of friendship between us. Thanks to Dun Guzepp’s interest in history, he also introduced me to the rich archives of Bormla’s parish church. This introduction brought about the development of a national project which is seeing the edition of a number of musical scores by the students of the Music Division at the University of Malta as well as the restoration of a rare Maltese portable organ. It is a great pity that he did not live to see this ambitious project being realised. As the member of Bormla’s Collegial Chapter, responsible for the parish church music, he had a special interest in this project.
My last note about this great man has to be towards his greatest love, the Immaculate Conception. The parish statue was for him his biggest source of inspiration, helping the human mind to figure the eternal Beauty of Virgin Mary, which cannot be described by the human senses. Now, that Dun Guzepp is no more in the world of the earthly living, I have no doubt that he is sharing this eternal bliss.
Simon Mercieca