Fr Joe Inguanez left us suddenly while enjoying himself swimming in Gozo. It is a very sad demise for us all who knew him, who worked with him for many years and who feel his loss because his life was so extensively intertwined with ours.
Those who knew Joe for many years know that he had a fascinating way of attracting and keeping friends for a long time. The many messages of farewell and prayers after his demise are a clear testimony of his everlasting expansion in his network, and of the great esteem all who knew him had for him.
I was particularly close to him in view of our common interest and work in sociology. Joe started his journey in sociology when, within ecclesiastical circles, sociology had started to occupy philosophy’s space as the ancilla theologiae, the servant of theology, and perceived as a necessary science for those who wanted to improve their pastoral care in the spirit of Vatican II’s aggiornamento in the 1960s and 70s.
His first excursion to the Gregorian University was clearly in this direction, following the steps of the earlier priest sociologist Fr Benjamin Tonna, who had accepted Houtart’s invitation to do exactly the same at the University of Louvain two decades before him.
But Fr Joe eventually broke the shell of pure ‘religious sociology’ and expanded into the more modern Sociology of Tourism when, at a later stage, he completed his doctorate in that area at Goldsmith College, University of London.
Joe was an outspoken person, fiercely opinionated from when he was a young seminarian. He never lost this characteristic which, combined with his strong voice, made him very visible wherever he went. Many described him as a “qassis skomdu”. He never felt uncomfortable in expressing his views, very assiduously formed through reflection in both the theological and the social sciences. His was a prophetic voice, uniting the two main roles of the priest and prophet as unified in true Catholicism. His words and actions were not a function of pure maintenance but of a lively and prophetic mission.
As a priest-academic, with the help of his mentor and co-activist within the Young Christian Workers, Peter Serracino Inglott, Joe was able to be extensively involved at the tertiary level of education, especially when the University of Malta was re-founded and the department of sociology created. Both in his academic work and in his pastoral activity, Joe was very competitive and forceful. He always sought to strive forward himself, and to push others to do the same, despite the winds and the waves.
Joe died the same way he lived: courageously facing the waves. In this he is greatly admired. His loss is great to us all, his friends, to the Maltese Church, and to Malta. We lost a good man.
May he now face no more waves and rest in the Risen Lord.
Funeral of Fr Joe Inguanez
The funeral of Fr Joe Inguanez is being held in Għaxaq, tomorrow, Monday, September 4.
His open coffin will be placed in St Philip Neri’s chapel in St Philip Street at 10am to allow the public to pay their last respects.
At 3pm, a funeral cortège will leave the chapel for Għaxaq parish church, where Mass praesente cadavere will be said at 4pm. It will be presided by Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea-Curmi.
Interment will take place at Għaxaq cemetery.