In the year marking the 15th anniversary of Fr Michael Attard’s death and the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination, his siblings – Peter, Emmanuel, Alfred, Josephine, Mgr Joseph, Carmen, Rita, Doris, and Giovanna Debono – share recollections of his spiritual journey.

The call to priesthood is a grace given by the Lord to those who he chooses to continue the work of redemption that he began. Our brother, Fr Michael, ceaselessly exercised this grace of God ever since he accepted this call when he was ordained priest by Bishop Joseph Pace, 60 years ago, until his last days.

Servant of God Fr Michael Attard.

We do not have enough words to express the great joy our mother and father and also we felt when our brother was ordained priest on April 12, 1959. On that day, Gozo was blessed by seven new priests.

Seeing our brother being ordained priest was a great blessing. We believe the way we were brought up as children by our mother and father, together with the family unity sustained by love on which they built our family, was the first nest in which the seeds of our brother’s vocation was sown.

Our parents never forced our brother to embark on the road to priesthood, but we are sure that their life as true, genuine Catholics was instrumental to give him that push forward to answer God’s call. Our parent’s main aim was to bring us up as mature and exemplary Catholics.

Against our parents’ wishes, Fr Michael chose April 26, 1959, as a special day for him, as this was the feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel. We remember that on that day, an unexpected stormy day dawned. It was windy and raining heavily, and during the day the bad weather continued to get worse and worse.

We were expecting some musicians and other guests from Malta. We were sure that many guests would not attend Mass and that most of our plans would be disrupted. In fact, the ferry boat did not cross over, and our father did his best to find substitutes for the musicians. He arranged with the Seminary rector for the seminarians to take care of the singing and the music.

Young ‘Mikieli’, when he was close to three years old, c. 1936.

In spite of the downpour, the Nadur people and many others from outside the village filled the Nadur church to capacity, when our brother said his first solemn Mass. Everybody was soaked to the skin, but they also wanted to share their joy with us. The panygeric of the occasion was delivered by his friend Fr Nicholas Cauchi (later Bishop of Gozo) in his native dialect of Għarb.

We can still hear the question our mother put to Fr Michael: “Michael,” she asked, “how come you chose that priest to deliver the homily; he talked so much in a dialect.”

Fr Michael answered her: “Do not wonder too much, mum. He will become bishop.”

We do not know what prompted him to say this. The fact is that that is what happened in the future. Who would tell our mother that the priest who had spoken ‘in dialect’ would be the same one who would lead and deliver the homily at Fr Michael’s funeral? The same bishop often used to call Fr Michael “the priest of counsels”.

He had strong hope in God, especially in moments of suffering and trial- Bishop Nicholas Cauchi

After the first High Mass, there was a feast at our house where the people of Nadur and many others from outside the village came to share with us this blessed happiness. We had planned to gather all the children together on the roof of our garage. But the rain was still pouring and our father had to find a small corner in our house so that they would not be disappointed and still be able to share in the joy of the day.

Some old people from Nadur who remember that day, still ask why the weather had to be so bad on that particular day. It seemed as if the devil wanted to disrupt all the joy. But we also believe St George Preca’s words that “nothing happens haphazardly but everything is under the providential judgement of God”.

Together with his upbringing in our family, our brother also received a good formation from the MUSEUM of Nadur, where he used to attend for the ‘assenjatur’, the meeting of teaching and formation, which takes place every day for members.

Even in 1954 when he was already a seminarian, Fr Michael took part in the Ceremony of the Candidates, which was created by St George Preca, where each candidate looks at Christ Crucified and publicly proposes to look up to him only, all days of his life. We strongly believe that Fr Michael kept this resolution which he made when he was still a young 20-year-old lad. And when later he was spiritual director of the seminiarians, he used to encourage those in whose village there was a MUSEUM, to do their utmost to continue to frequent the ‘assenjatur’ as best as they could.

Fr Michael continued to interest himself in whatever used to happen in MUSEUM section meetings in all Gozitan villages, especially in that of Nadur. For many years, every Sunday afternoon, he used to give the lesson of the ‘assenjatur’ to the Nadur members. He was also instrumental in both the building of the new boys’ section, and in the organisation of the teaching, especially in his early years.

We also remember how much he worked to begin a meeting, every first Saturday of the month, for male youths and lads. He wanted it to begin to take place as from August 1965, on the opening and blessing of the new MUSEUM section. This meeting is still being held to this day, and with it he also launched the leaflet The Friends Call, which is still issued each month.

Two photos taken during Fr Michael Attard’s priestly ordination by Bishop Giuseppe Pace at the Gozo Cathedral, Victoria, on April 12, 1959. In the line-up of newly ordained priests he is seen second from right.

Fr Michael planned the programme of his priestly work on some biblical words, such as Is 61:1: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” And like that man in the parable, who found a treasure in his field and did his utmost to posses that treasure, or like the businessman in the parable, who sought fine pearls and when he found a very precious pearl, he sold all he had, and bought that pearl.

Fr Michael appreciated dearly his priestly call. He used to believe that the priestly vocation was worth as much as that treasure hidden in the field or that very precious pearl. So much so, that for his first solemn Mass, Fr Michael prepared and distributed a booklet entitled Priesthood in Our Times, with a dedication to himself and to Fr Rosario Borg, one of the priests ordained with him. The booklet was prepared by our brother himself with the highly valued and studied help of Fr (later Mgr) Nicholas Cauchi.

Fr Michael passed away on July 30, 2004. In the homily of his funeral, on August 2, Bishop Nicholas Cauchi said: “When Fr Michael passed away, the Gozo diocese lost one of her best priests. A ‘pearl’ of the Gozitan clergy was lost.” He added: “Fr Michael’s heart was full of love for his neighbour. He used to do his utmost to befriend people with God. I can say that he really had a universal vision for the Church.”

We were overjoyed when on November 1, 2010, during the Solemnity of All Saints Day at the Gozo Cathedral, Bishop Mario Grech announced that the necessary preparations were going to begin to start the cause for the beatification of our brother. Then on February 12, 2012, Mgr Grech wrote to the Congregation for the Cause of the Saints in Rome to ask for the ‘Nulla Osta’, before the go-ahead for the official start of the diocesan process for beatification of our brother.

A postive answer was given by an official letter from Cardinal Prefect Angelo Amato on May 14, 2012. We quote what Bishop Mario Grech said at a concelebration which he led in the church of the Good Shepherd on August 2, 2011, on the seventh anniversary of Fr Michael’s death: “There are those who in His providence God choses them and talks to them face to face, as he used to talk to Moses, so that they would be able to give this service. I dare say that Fr Michael had this privelege.”

Fr Michael Attard let his beard grow to reflect his spiritual option for a missionary spirit. He regularly visited Third World countries instead of taking holidays.

We are overjoyed when we see progress in the cause of the beatification of Fr Michael, and hope that our brother will be honoured by the glory of the altar. But even more, our wish is that through him more people encounter and are enamoured towards God. This was, in fact, his wish.

May Fr Michael become what Bishop Nicholas Cauchi wrote about him and about his life, that is, that he would become “a true model of humility and obedience”, because “he had strong hope in God, especially in moments of suffering and trial”.

We also wish that our hope in God will get stronger, and in moments of suffering and trial, we try to remember Fr Michael’s words which he himself used to tell us. He used to remind us that “if we do not embrace the wood of the Cross like Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus, we would have to embrace the wood of Judas, when we give way to temptations, like anger, lust and the rest. If we choose the second wood, our heart becomes empty, our conscience tormented and our life becomes without any aim, and nonsense. We would always live in a certain tension that leads to despair and hell from this same world.”

So we ask readers to join us so that together we pray to God that if it is His will, He will glorify our brother, Fr Michael, and with His intercession we may be granted the graces we request.