The Institute of Pastoral Ministry (Gozo diocese) graduation ceremony was held at the youth centre in Nadur, following the institute’s annual general meeting.
The IPM is an educational institution set up by the Gozo diocese to offer professional formation to individuals who are already active or are interested in assuming a role in pastoral ministry.
IPM chairman Joe Azzopardi made a short speech in which he said the institute was organising several courses with the aim that in the future they would be combined into a diploma.
“In a context where there is a risk of losing our identity as a people,” Azzopardi said, “the Church is also working in this way to continue evangelising and delivering the Good News.”
The courses, he said, were accredited by the Malta Authority for Advanced and Higher Education.
Addressing the graduands, Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma said for many of us, faith was based on popular devotions such as festivals and processions, which, he said, “even though they are not bad in themselves, often lead to faith being considered as magic and superstition, built sometimes on fear and relegated to what is occasional.”
Mgr Teuma said that for the change to take place from a faith based on popular devotions or superstition to one based on a personal decision to follow Christ, continuous formation was indispensable.
“Continuous conversion required continuous formation,” he said.
The Institute of Pastoral Ministry, Mgr Teuma stressed, was God’s providence which can stimulate the Church in Gozo so that faith was no longer a ritual or a magical thing, but a personal choice.
He said he was well aware of the institute’s valuable contribution to professional formation through the courses it offered.
Almost 70 people successfully completed a course organised by the IPM during the last academic year, including in the Safeguarding of Minors and Biblical Formation course. Most of the students are professionals who work in various important sectors in Malta and Gozo, and others are lay people engaged in parishes and associations.
At the end of the ceremony, it was announced that the institute has a new director, Fr Noel Saliba, who for 16 years served as headmaster of the Gozo Minor Seminary secondary school.
Mgr Teuma thanked both Fr Noel Debono, the previous director, Fr Joseph Farrugia, the founder of IPM and its first director, as well as Frances Galea, the first administrative secretary.