Francis Bonnici:The Academic Formation of Maltese Priests in the University of Malta 1838-1938.
BDL Publishing 2019
pp. 688
ISBN 9787-99957-99-76-2
When one starts reading a book like this, embracing 688 densely printed pages, one would first give a glance at the archival sources, local and foreign, consulted, and the bibliography perused, which enable the reader to make an overall assessment of the contents. The sources in such an academic work are the essential and fundamental ingredients of the cake and the finished product. As the author says in the preface: “This research has occupied most of my time in the past 18 years.”
The book mainly focuses on the development of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Malta between 1838 and 1938.
The essence of the priesthood is spirituality, which entails personal holiness and a deep knowledge of the Church’s doctrine and teachings; these include, inter alia, the study of the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, dogma and moral, philosophy, and pastoral work. The book traces the academic formation of the priesthood and its development in the University Malta.
The solicitude of the Church
The Church, from its inception, solicited the theological academic formation of priests. The Council of Trent (1545-63) established the seminary as an important and essential institution in every diocese, which provided the spiritual, theological and pastoral formation of the aspirant priests.
With the appearance and spread of rationalism and the Enlightenment movement, the Church reacted by offering a solid academic formation of priests at the Church-run faculties of theology in Rome and in the local Churches.
Towards the implementation of the Tridentine decrees on ecclesiastical reform, the Church set up the Congregatio Seminarorum, which was the first body of a universal character entrusted with the foundation of seminaries. The Congregation also provided for an academic formation of seminarists.
In 1824, Pope Leo XII published the Apostolic Constitution Quod divina sapientia, setting up the programme of studies for the universities within the Papal States for the students of the faculties of theology. The Congregation provided existing and future faculties of theology in the Church with their curriculum of studies for the future. In its early stages the plan of studies aimed at making students proficient in the Latin language. Then followed courses in philosophy and theology which, however, did not substitute the seminary.
The Church Magisterium continued to appeal to impart a liberal and theological formation to students aspiring to the priesthood. It found the collaboration in the Jesuits of the Roman College, which in 1873 became the Gregorian University run by the same Jesuits.
Teaching theology in Malta
With regard to Malta before the institution of the Jesuits’ College in 1592, the Dominican fathers settled in Malta in 1461 at Rabat, and later, following the foundation of Valletta, opened a school in their convent of Our Lady of Porto Salvo, which had the faculty to confer degrees in philosophy and theology. In 1568, the Augustinian friars taught theology in their convent of St Mark in Rabat.
By brief of Pope Clement VIII dated March 28, 1592, a Jesuits’ College was instituted in Malta in lieu of a seminary. The College was to have the same educational purpose as the seminary. In 1727, the College became an Accademia (Academy) when it started conferring academical degrees, including theology.
Under the British administration, the University went through some changes. The British government, however, was determined to continue preparing students to the professions in the island of Malta
But by this time the Seminary of Malta had been established by the diocesan Bishop Fr Davide Cocco Palmieri for the better formation of priests. The Seminary opened its doors on March 25, 1703, feast day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was transferred from Valletta to Mdina in 1728 by Fra Paul Alpheran de Bussan.
With the expulsion of the Jesuits from Malta in 1766 the Collegium Melitense “became the foundation stone” of the University of Malta. The Holy See conceded to Grand Master Emanuel Pinto “to avail himself of the revenue deriving from the property of the Jesuits to set up an institution for higher studies”. The Holy See authorised the institution of the University in Malta. The three professional courses were theology, jurisprudence and medicine.
Except for the short interlude from 1798 to 1800, when the University was suppressed by the French occupation and replaced by a Central School, the University soon resumed its academical function and activities under the Civil Governor Alexander Ball.
Under the British administration, the University went through some changes. The British government, however, was determined to continue preparing students to the professions in the island of Malta.
Mgr Gonzi during the official opening of Il-Ħajja Press at Blata l-Bajda in April 1973.A new era in education
The year 1838 was marked by the new statute of the University (drafted by Sir Gavinus Ignatius Bonavita) which took effect the following year. Governor Bouverie defined the statute: “the beginning of a new era of public instruction in Malta”. In 1880, the British government decided to send Patrick Keenan, Resident Commissioner of National Education in Ireland, to enquire into the educational system in Malta. As a result of the Keenan report, a commission to reorganise the Faculty of Arts was set up.
The Matriculation examination for admission in the University was introduced in 1882. Ecclesiastical students who intended to pursue a course in the Faculty of Theology objected to the inclusion of certain subjects which they deemed to be unnecessary for the study of theology and in pursuing an ecclesiastical career. The impasse was overcome in 1887, when students from the Course of Arts qualified to join the Faculty of Theology.
Records of the Gregorian University (Catalogus Professorum et Alumnorum) show that Joannes Mallia was the first Maltese student in 1884 in the Faculty of Theology. More students of theology at the Gregorian University followed in the ensuing years. Maltese doctors of theology proceeded to Rome to study philosophy, Canon law and biblical subjects because of a scholarship which the Council of Government granted in 1900 to the first student of the theology course. On their return to Malta the students helped the Faculty of Theology to have professors in theology, Canon law, Holy Scripture, Hebrew, Church history, patristics and liturgy.
In the 1930s the Congregation of Seminaries and of the Universities of Studies was updating the curriculum of studies and the academical standards of the Faculty of Theology according to the Apostolic Constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus (1931). This was an exercise in the development of the formation of the future of the clergy in Malta. Archbishop Michael Gonzi, a former student and a former professor in the Faculty of Theology of the University of Malta, was firmly against the Faculty moving out of the University, for the Faculty of Theology was an integral part of the University. He insisted that the faculty should not only continue to exist in the University, but it must necessarily submit to the reform advocated by the Apostolic Constitution.
There was a long exchange of correspondence between the Holy See and the British government between 1932 and 1938. The matter was successfully solved so that the updating of the curriculum of studies in the Faculty of Theology, including the granting of the DD degree, proved itself capable to continue for the future as the main source of the academic formation of priests in Malta. Between 1838 and 1938, 196 students joined the Faculty of Theology in the University of Malta. Of these, 181 graduated Doctors of Divinity. Having completed his theological studies at the University, the newly ordained priest embarked on pastoral work in its diverse forms. From among the many ex alumni who studied for the priesthood in the University of Malta one would mention Archbishop Michael Gonzi, an epoch-making figure in the Maltese Church history; the saintly Vicar General, Bishop Emanuel Galea; and Mgr Professor Salvatore Grima, a late vocation, founder of the Home for the Clergy.
Many were the students of the Faculty of Theology who shed lustre on our Alma Mater.