Mgr Carmel Zammit was this morning ordained as Bishop of Gibraltar in a ceremony that took place at the Mdina Cathedral.
Before the ceremony started Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, Bishop Ralph Heskett and Bishop-elect Carmel Zammit left the Archbishop’s Palace on foot to the Mdina Cathedral.
There, they were greeted by the Metropolitan Chapter and led to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament for a short moment of prayer.
Solemn Mass started at 9:30a.m and was presided over by Cardinal Nichols.
Cardinal Nichols
In his homily, the Cardinal spoke on the Church in Europe and European values.
“It is more important than ever for the Church in Europe, and therefore in Gibraltar, to proclaim and practice those values and qualities that lie at the heart of European civilisation. These are truly fundamental values, that underpin derived values such as democracy and individual freedom, the rule of law and tolerance, important as they are.
We must live and proclaim deeper values: the inalienable dignity of the person, from conception to natural death; the equality in dignity of every person; the freedom to live and seek truth and love. Flowing from these values come the duties of accountability, the importance of deferring pleasure, the readiness to serve and the sense of vocation in life, beyond profit and earthly inheritance. These values are not freestanding.
Bishop Carmel Zammit
They are not self-evident or self-justifying. Among us in Europe, they derive from their Judeo-Christian roots and they will be sustained only within the context of our beliefs about human nature, the purpose of life and society. It is our task to proclaim them and to remember other words of Ortega y Gasset that hatred is the one feeling which leads to the extinction these values”.