Ecclesiastical insignia have been in use by the Catholic Church since the Middle Ages with episcopal arms appearing towards the end of the 13th century. The episcopal coat of arms identifies the person through the family shield as well as the boundaries of his ecclesial jurisdiction and at times also his pastoral vision.
The person of the bishop is eminently theological. Once the bishop-elect is consecrated, his significance becomes embedded in his person and arises from his being ordained as from an origin that runs deeper than the sole office. The bishop is chosen from amongst men in order to give himself, not just his activity, for man. He does this in the name of Christ, as His vicar and in union with Him. His mission is that of gathering around him and forming together with himself the body of Christ, localised as regards the actual territory depending on him and universal as regards his ecumenical and missionary relevance.
The arms of the new bishop of Gozo, HL Mgr Mario Grech, ably created by the Rev. Robert Gauci, incorporate the three classical elements of every episcopal arms: the emblems of office, the personal shield and the motto.
The insigna
The emblems of Bishop Grech's rank and office consist in the prelate's green hat with six tassels, on each side, in three rows. This hat is not worn any more but it has been retained in ecclesiastical heraldry. The processional cross rises in the middle and supports the shield proper. With regard to the ecclesiastical insigna of his office Bishop Grech has chosen to be frugal.
The shield
The arms are more elabortely crafted as regards the shield proper which bears charges within three horizzontal fields.
¤ The top field is composed of two impalements: the dexter shows the Grech surname, that is the surname of the bishop's immediate family, while the sinister bears the emblems of Attard, the mother's originating family. This field is a kind of identity card of the bishop. It is not devoid of theological significance, since it implants the bishop solidly in human community. He is one of us and like us comes from an ordinary family, embodies an individual history, carries cultural baggage and is bound up with the same human destiny that is common to us and others. Society, after all, is the addressee of Christ's love, word and action. It is not less the bishop's.
¤ The middle field further heralds the bishop's identity by illustrating the theological sigificance with which, henceforth, the priest-elected-bishop wishes to endow his presence for-us. It is a profoundly Eucharistic significance that he sees in his new ministry and this is illustrated by the symbolic composition of the bread and the fish as derived from the Gospel event of the multiplication of the loaves. In the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, St Ignatius of Antioch included, the bishop is Christ on the model of the Eucharist and is called to become more perfectly "broken bread" for the community over which he presides.
¤ The bottom horissontal field of Mgr Grech's shield consists of charges selected from the traditional emblem representing the island of Gozo. Gozo is the canonical territory that constitutes the new bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Gozo is the ecclesial oversight of the bishop. The episcopal shield is a reminder that Bishop Grech is the fisherman whose call it is to throw his net into the deep waters of Gozitan society. He is the shepherd whose duty it is to care for Christ's flock roaming the island's hills and valleys under the guidance of its hidden star. He is also its presiding priest, gathering Christ's disciples around him in continuation with the Christian community of Jerusalem and in communion with the universal Church, persevering in prayer, steadfast in the teachings of the apostles and charitable in the breaking and sharing of the bread.
The motto
The heraldic message of Bishop Mario Grech's coat of arms acquires completion with the phrase - In fractione panis - that he adopted, from the Gospel according to Luke (24,35), as guiding motto of his episcopal ministry.
The theological significance of the motto cannot be grasped solely from the three Latin words composing it; it has to be obtained from the whole account of the experience of Christ's disciples at Emmaus. Its inner dynamism illustrates the character of the bishop's action "in" community and "through" community. In the breaking of the bread we gather in Christ, we give ourselves to the Father and, through this giving to the Father, to one another as broken bread that is given for sharing. Here the under-lying idea of oblation is both sacramental and social. The motto is essentially Biblical but its suggestion goes beyond the Bible and leads into practical ecclesiology.
The motto is in Latin, and this suggests the communion of the Gozitan Christian community, through its bishop, with the universal Church.
The motto ties well with the Paleo-Christian symbolism of the Eucharist which lies at the centre of the bishop's personal shield. It underscores the vision for the Church "of the third Christian millennium" as projected by both the late Pope John Paul II and the present Holy Father Benedict XVI.
The episcopal insigna of HL Mgr M. Grech do indeed herald his personal identity, his ecclesiastical jurisdiction and his pastoral vision.