I very often walked down Church Street in Paceville, St. Julians and couldn’t help thinking that the Church was the ugliest building I had ever seen. Each time I walked past it, the same thought went through my head. Eventually I asked if anyone attended mass there and thought of finding out for myself. It was equally unattractive inside. One day the thought passed through my mind “If you think it’s so ugly, DO something to make it look better.”
This I tried to do and asked my artist friend, Raymond Pitre, to paint a large picture of Padre Pio which he did. The intention was to give it to the church there. Imagine my surprise when sometime later I saw a sign up on the side of the church “Do something beautiful for God”. It was an appeal for funds to build a special eucharistic chapel there and a counselling and community centre.
Eventually the chapel was built by a famous architect and there is permanent exposition in it. The chapel was beautifully designed, and Fr. Hilary Tagliaferro was in charge of the whole project. The funds came from people all over Malta as this chapel would be built in Paceville, right next to the busiest night-club and entertainment area of Malta. A place which now rivals the reputation of the old Soho in London for its bright lights, strip clubs and sleeze. The people of Malta saw this as an opportunity to claim back the area where many of their children were being corrupted by being exposed to the clear evidence of sex and drugs. They responded well and funds came pouring in. The chapel was built alongside the main church and a separate extension called ‘WOW’ (Wishing Others Well) was also built to provide a place to encourage meetings, talks and good community activities. An auditorium was designed downstairs, rooms were built for meetings, a bookshop was opened and various groups like A.A, N.A and Justice & Peace etc. meet in these rooms. Everything is centered around the inner chapel of adoration which is open all day till 2am in the morning. Professional psychologists give their time free of charge there and help the priests with counselling. It is called ‘The Millennium Chapel’ (www.millenniumchapel.org) since it was completed on the 8th of August in the year 2000. This is also where, for the past two years, we have our Christian Meditation group meetings.
Later on, Fr. Ray Francalanza, who was Parish Priest for a while, had the main church, Our Lady of Good Counsel, completely renovated and re-designed to a very high standard. For six months, during the refurbishment of the church the parishioners had to hear mass in a nearby hotel as the work was extensive. When everything was being put back together, we noticed that the Padre Pio painting did not find its way back. On enquiring about it, Fr Ray told me that he had to remove it as it was an Augustinian church and the Padre Pio painting did not match with the new design. He told me I could come and take it back as it had been put into storage. This I did although, I must admit, I was hurt and could hardly believe what I heard. But in truth, Padre Pio did his work and left. The painting now has pride of place at our language school. Praise God.