Sunday May 15, 2011

Mission archbishop gives thanks to others at Mass for his golden jubilee

By Gerry O'Connell
Rome Correspondent The Universe

As he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination last week in Rome, the English-born Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, papal nuncio to Egypt and delegate to the Arab League, expressed his gratitude to the many people who have helped him over the years, and especially Blessed Pope John Paul II.
As a sign of his gratitude, the archbishop, who has been resident in Cairo since 2006, revealed that he had come to Rome to participate in the ceremony for the beatification of John Paul II on May 1.

A member of the Missionaries of Africa, better known as the White Fathers, Archbishop Fitzgerald celebrated his golden jubilee by presiding at a concelebrated Mass at his order's headquarters in Rome on May 7. Some 100 people - priests, religious men and women and lay people who had been his friends during the 38 years he spent in Rome - attended the jubilee Mass.

Ministry
The celebration was simple and lowkey but kept in the style of Archbishop Fitzgerald himself, a humble and profoundly spiritual missionary who once studied at Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall. Both his parents were doctors in Walsall and he joined the White Fathers at Sutton Coldlfield before his 13th birthday, later studying in Tunisia.

He began his homily by saying he had "many reasons to thank the Lord" for the 50 years of priestly ministry, 38 of which he spent in Rome, two in Sudan and the last five in Egypt. He thanked God for his years as a theology student at the Gregorian University (1961-65), and as professor (1968-69) and later director of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (1971-79).

The archbishop recalled with gratitude his election to the General Council of the White Fathers in 1980 and his work in that capacity until 1986. Archbishop Fitzgerald went on to thank John Paul II for appointing him to the Vatican's Secretariat for non-Christians (now the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue) in 1987, where he became the Vatican's top expert on Islam, and for promoting him to be secretary of that office and ordaining him bishop in 1992.

The Polish pope had also made him head of that same council in 2002, succeeding Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria. The 73-year-old archbishop spoke of the joy he has experienced as a bishop when, following in the footsteps of the apostles, he laid hands on men to ordain them bishops. He expressed particular joy at being asked to ordain students of the Beda and English Colleges as deacons and priests and thanked the Rector of the Beda, Mgr Roderick Strange, who was one of the concelebrants at Mass, for the many invitations he had extended to him.

Archbishop Fitzgerald's gratitude to Blessed John Paul II, however, went beyond appreciation for personal signs of esteem and trust. He paid high tribute to the pontiff for "the great inspiration" he had given to all those engaged in the dialogue with other religions, an inspiration he cemented in a special way by convening the historic meeting of leaders of the world's major religions in Assisi in October 1986. The archbishop recalled how John Paul II had called him to work in the Vatican in 1987, soon after the Assisi meeting.

Cardinal Arinze was then head of that office, and Archbishop Fitzgerald was delighted to see him attend this jubilee celebration together with staff members. Turning to the cardinal, Archbishop Fitzgerald thanked him for "the great trust" he had placed in him during the 15 years they had worked together. He paid particular tribute to "the spirit of dialogue" which was the hallmark not only of Arinze's leadership but also of his numerous encounters with leaders of other religions.

Significantly, however, the English nuncio did not mention in his homily what must have been one of the most difficult moments in his life when, in early 2006, the new pope, Benedict XVI, seeking to change the way the dialogue was being conducted with other religions, took the highly controversial decision of removing the Vatican's top expert on Islam from his post as president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and re-assigning him as nuncio to Egypt at a time when many were expecting him to be made cardinal. At the same time, Pope Benedict decreed the merging of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue with the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Less than 18 months later, however, he Pope reversed the second decision, though not the first, in the wake of the controversy with the Muslim world sparked by his Regensburg lecture in September 2006.
In his homily last Saturday, however, Archbishop Fitzgerald bypassed all this and only made a fleeting reference to his current work in Egypt and the uncertain situation there after the recent revolution.
On August 17 next year, Archbishop Fitzgerald will reach the age of 75 and retire from his present post in Cairo.

'Security'
He concluded his reflection by commenting on the Gospel story read at Mass which spoke about how Jesus' disciples became frightened in their boat when a storm blew up; they feared they would not reach the shore. Then, suddenly, the Lord appeared to them walking on the water. They were frightened by him, but after he spoke to them they reached their desti- nation safely.

"The Lord is always present," Archbishop Fitzgerald reminded his friends. "We sometimes have the impression that we are far from our destination. "We desire security but we must remember that true security is to be found in him alone and in the Holy Spirit whom he has given to us."

"We don't know how long we have left but we know the Lord is with us," he added, "and so trusting in the Lord to reach the shore, let us go forward with joy and confidence."