PLANE PILGRIMS IN THE STEPS OF ST. PAUL

The Pope is invited to Malta
From Marian Curd MALTA, Sunday
JUST before mid-day this morning, under a burning hot Mediterranean sun, a small yacht dropped anchor near to a barren, rock-strewn island off the coast here, and twenty-eight English pilgrims went ashore carrying an outsize and beautifully decorated candle. Here it was that St. Paul landed in " Melita " just over 2,000 years ago, washed ashore from the wrecked ship which had been carrying him prisoner to Rome. Little, I felt, could have changed on this bleak, arid, uninhabited island as we carried to the hilltop shrine the lighted torch which was to be symbolic of the light of Faith which the saint brought here so few years after Christ had left this earth. The task of today's pilgrims has been to forge the last link in a chain of colourful events which have this weekend honoured St. Paul, and the new Pope who, to the overwhelming delight of the Maltese people has taken the name of their patron.
NIGHT VIGIL
The pilgrims are memhers of the English All Night Vigil Group. We flew out here Thursday night. Yesterday we were joined by more than 300 Maltese in a night of prayer for the conversion of Russia. for Christian unity, for the intentions of Pope Paul, and significantly at the present time of negotiations and pending independence, for the future of Catholic Malta. They were joined in spirit by 74 Maltese who, on Friday, " borrowed " our plane and flew off to Lourdes, there to keep identical vigil for identical intentions. Their flight had been arranged by Fr. Charles Vella and the Cana Movement of Malta. The little group who landed this morning among the cactus thorns and lizards of St. Paul's Island were led by Canon Jerome Hrincat, who only last week was appointed head of the Women's Branch of Malta's strong Catholic Action Movement, and by Hon. Mrs. Henrietta Bower, founder of the ANV Group. Last night was Vigil Night in three of Malta's beautiful churches. My choice was for St. Paul's Grotto, Rabat, where in the corner of the crypt (in reality a cave) is the grotto where St. Paul lived for the three months he was in Malta. Brilliantly dazzling banners, red and white streamers, gaily decorated and painted lamp-posts garlanded with lighted flowers, beautifully painted statues by the dozen, pictures, shrines, the town band. church bells, and a riproaring display of fireworks, out-crack.ering anything I have ever heard in England, was the surprising and altogether delightful prelude to Rabat's vigil. A prelude which more than any other incident I have witnessed this colourful weekend has, I feel, shown the real Malta; a people who can so easily and wholeheartedly combine an utterly joyous festa with a genuinely happy, if noisy, praise of God and their patron saint.
BISHOP'S CABLE
All the world and his friends and relations were down in the square last night wearing, so I was told, last year's new finery. On Sunday before the deep peals of the Parer Nosier bell faded away at 4 a.m. they would be back to crowd the first Mass. They would be wearing this year's brand new clothes in honour of the Feast of St. Paul —which has been transferred from the last Sunday owing to the election of the new Pope—a happy way of having a double celebration.
This morning, the vigil cornpletcd, Bishop Galea, Archbishop Gonzi's Vicar General, came to Rabat to celebrate Mass in St. Paul's Grotto, to receive the pilgrims from England, and to sign a special cable to Pope Paul; a cable which told the story of this weekend, and ended with what must be one of Malta's dearest wishes—to see him visit their island.
The cable read :
"After celebrating Mass at the instance of the English All Night Vigil Group led by the Hon. Mrs. Bower, in St. Paul's Grotto, Malta, today, for the intentions of Your Holiness, especially Christian Unity, I wish to convey most humbly the prayers and penance of hundreds of English and Maltese vigilers who spent last night in prayer. .. ." The cable went on to tell of the Maltese group who had gone to Lourdes, the candle which had been lighted on St. Paul's Island. and concluded by praying that "through you the light of Faith will burn ever more brightly the world over and lead you to visit this island."