Mgr Hector Scerri writes:

The demise of Fr Nicholas, on July 28, was an unexpected blow to many who knew him. Fr Nicholas’s life and mission was inextricably bound to Christian formation and discernment. For 25 years, he was close to seminarians and priests because he was deeply involved in their spiritual and theological formation, at the Archbishop’s Seminary (Rabat), at the Faculty of Theology (University of Malta), at St Vincent de Paul Seminary (Florida, the US) and at the Institute of Priestly Formation (Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, the US).

Fr Nicholas was also very much available in enhancing the formation and support of members of lay movements in Malta. He animated countless retreats locally and abroad. He was also especially close to the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom he had met in 1980. He was also very active in the media, both as a seminarian in the 1980s and as a priest. For nearly three years, he was also responsible in the running of the Media Centre of the Church in Malta.

This appreciation is not meant to be a mini-biography of Siġġiewi-born Fr Nicholas. Much has been said about how he brought a difference in people’s lives, wherever he exercised his priestly ministry for 33 years. This appreciation, rather, seeks to convey the qualities which he embraced.

Nicholas was a man of immense generosity and availability. He readily and joyfully accepted to be close to God’s people wherever he was called, whether it was a small wayside chapel, or a sick person in hospital, or hearing confessions at Youth Fellowship activities, or celebrating the Eucharist, preaching, sharing spiritual reflections or participating in international meetings on spirituality. His point of departure was always the Word of God which he daily used for his personal prayer and discernment. His generosity and altruism led him to serve the Missionaries of Charity in Cospicua, as well as in Egypt and other countries.

I have known Nicholas for nearly 40 years. To all of us who knew him, we were often challenged by his radicality in embracing the Gospel message. He was enamoured of the figure of the Good Shepherd in the 10th chapter of John’s Gospel. His doctoral thesis which, with many others, I was privileged to see him defend so masterfully and beautifully at the Gregorian University, Rome in January 1995, remains, to this day, a lauded and quoted research on the Good (and Beautiful) Shepherd as a source of priestly spirituality.

Fr Nicholas was a man of God and a man of the people. He was an enthusiastic and committed priest who tangibly conveyed the beauty and joy of being a priest.

He was a man for others and a man with others. His example and witness will live on in the minds and hearts of many in Malta, Gozo and overseas. I am convinced that the fruit of his generous self-offering will bear fruit in the years to come.