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George Franco Preca, T.OCarm (in Maltese: Ġorġ Preca) (12 February 1880 – 26 July 1962) was a MalteseCatholic priest, the founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine and a Third Order Carmelite.[1]Pope John Paul II dubbed him "Malta’s second father in faith".[2]
He assumed the religious name of "Franco" after becoming a Third Order Carmelite. He was a popular figure among some groups, and his pastoral care and religious teaching earned recognition. However, his activities raised suspicions of heresy from senior clergy. He was ordered to close down his teaching centres for a time while they could be investigated; they were subsequently re-opened.[3]
His activism earned him praise and in 1952, Pope Pius XII nominated him as a papal privy chamberlain and awarded the rank of Monsignor.[3]
In 1957 he composed five new mysteries for the Rosary for his followers which he referred to as the "Mysteries of Light".[4] These seemed to have been the basis for the 5 Luminous Mysteries promoted by Saint John Paul II in 2002 in his Apostolic LetterRosarium Virginis Mariae.[5][6] He was canonized as a saint in 2007.
George Preca was born in Valletta on 12 February 1880[7] as the seventh of nine children of Vincent and Nathalie Ceravolo Preca.[8] His father was both a merchant and a health inspector.[9] He received his baptism on 17 February 1880 in the Church of Our Lady of Porto Salvo.[10] Preca was a frail child due to a range of illnesses he had and in 1885 almost drowned in the harbour though boatmen rescued him.[11]
In 1886, the family relocated to Ħamrun. He received both his First Communion at some stage in his childhood and then his Confirmation on 2 August 1888 in the Parish Church of St Cajetan, Ħamrun.[10]
1897年、フロリアーナのマグリオ庭園を散策していたジョルジュ・プレカは、教授の一人であるエルコレ・モンパラオ神父に出会い、宗教的召命を勧められた。プレカは司祭になるための勉強を始める前に、まず島の公立学校で学んだ。ラテン語と英語を学んだが、イタリア語も学び、書道で賞をもらった。[ 9 ]叙階の直前、プレカは急性肺結核と診断され、予後不良と宣告された。彼は死にゆく者の守護聖人である聖ヨセフの取りなしによって回復したが、この病気により左肺に損傷が残った。[ 12 ]
1905 年 4 月 8 日、彼の告解師アロイシウス・ガレアが亡くなり、プレカは、その直後、ガレアが彼の前に現れて、司祭職への召命を励ましたかのように感じたことをしばしば語っていた。彼は学業の中で、自分が設立したいと考えていた終身助祭のための計画的な宗教運動で使用するための規則をラテン語で書き始めたが、この願望は時とともに薄れていった。その考えはプレカの心にずっと残っていたが、彼は叙階後にその考えを変えた。プレカは 1906 年 12 月 22 日、ピエトロ・パーチェ司教から他の 13 名とともに司祭に叙階され、12 月 25 日、クリスマスにハムルーンの聖カエタン教区教会で初ミサを捧げた。[ 7 ]彼は聖ガエターノ教会の助任司祭に任命され、すぐに若者の教育に専念した。[ 11 ]
彼は港湾地区で労働者を含む人々にカトリックの教理問答を教え始め、エウゲンジュ・ボルグを含む男性の教理問答教師を周囲に集めた。 [ 10 ] 1907年2月、彼はタ・ヌッツォ教会で霊的会議を企画し、その後、フラ・ディエグ通り6番地で会合が開かれた。これがきっかけとなり、1907年3月7日、ハムルンでキリスト教教理協会（地元ではMUSEUMとして知られる）の最初の会合が開かれ、新しい宗教運動が設立された。[ 13 ]
Senior clergy began to suspect that the rapid growth and popularity of Preca's movement could have heretical implications, especially as it involved so many of the low skilled and uneducated. The Vicar General, Mgr Salvatore Grech, issued an order in 1909 that all the "MUSEUM centres" should be closed. A protest by other parish priests led to the order being rescinded. Nevertheless, the new society continued to receive criticism in the press, and in 1916 Bishop Maurus Caruana opened a formal enquiry. This cleared the movement of any negative behaviour and paved the way in due course for ecclesiastical recognition of the Society of Christian Doctrine on 12 April 1932.
It was at the height of the crisis that Preca claimed to have received a powerful religious experience in 1910 one morning as he passed the Marsa Cross – triggered by a child aged twelve pushing a cart with a bag of manure who had shouted: "Lend me a hand!". Preca helped him and as he placed his hands on the cart he felt profound spiritual calmness and understood that he had experienced a revelation as the boy symbolized Christ and the wagon, the work of evangelizing.[11]
Preca became a Third Order Carmelite after being admitted on 21 July 1918, and made his profession on 26 September 1919 with the new religious name of "Franco". In the parishes, Preca established Nativity plays at Christmas time; a custom maintained to this day in almost all the parishes of Malta.[11]
In the 1950s Fr Preca himself sent six members of the Society to Australia to serve the Maltese who had emigrated to Melbourne.[13] As of 2016, there were 1,200 members serving in six countries.
Despite his ability in Italian and English, Preca taught and wrote in Maltese, the language of the common people, so that everyone could understand. He wrote about 150 booklets, pamphlets and leaflets.[13] To publish and spread his works, he obtained a printing press and founded in the 1920s what would become Veritas Press, one of the main Catholic publishing companies in Malta.
Throughout his pastoral mission he was a popular preacher and sought-after confessor.[9] Preca was named as a Monsignor after Pope Pius XII – on 2 October 1952 – named him a Privy Chamberlain, much to his mortification, and he held this title until the pope died in 1958. He never wore the vestments that the title entailed, nor did he ever claim the official document from the archbishop's office.[3]
Preca died in the evening of 26 July 1962. His funeral on 28 July was one of the largest funerals ever held in Malta and Bishop Emanuel Galea presided over it at the Saint Cajetan church.[9]
In 1957 Preca wrote five mysteries which he called the "Mysteries of Light" (il-Misteri tad-Dawl) which he said had been inspired by John 8:12: "The light of the world".[14][a]
These were:
The cause towards canonization by the Catholic Church formally opened on 13 March 1975 under Pope Paul VI when Preca was given the title "Servant of God" after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued its official "nihil obstat". Mikiel Gonzi (the Archbishop of Malta) subsequently issued the decree on 24 June 1975 that would pave the path for a full diocesan investigation to begin. The process opening in Malta on 25 February 1976 and continued for over a decade until its solemn closure on 23 June 1988 under Joseph Mercieca. The Congregation validated the process in Rome on 19 June 1992 and the postulator later submitted the Positio for assessment in 1998. A congress of six theologians first approved the cause on 16 March 1999 while the members of the Congregation likewise voted in approval of the cause on 1 June 1999. The confirmation of Preca's model life of "heroic virtue" on 28 June 1999 allowed for Pope John Paul II to grant the title of Venerable[9][15]
However, for Preca to be beatified a miracle had to be obtained as a result of his intercession - or at least a healing that conventional science could not easily explain. One such miracle was investigated and it received validation from the Congregation on 21 November 1997 before a board of seven medical appointees approved it on 10 June 1999 as did six theologians on 22 October 1999 and then the Congregation on 11 January 2000. The Pope expressed his view on 27 January 2000 that this healing was indeed a miracle and beatified Preca on 9 May 2001 while on a visit to Malta, and referred to him on that visit as the "Second Apostle of Malta" (Saint Paul being the first).[9] The attributed miracle was a healing in February 1964 of Charles Zammit Endrich, who suffered from a detached retina in his left eye. An investigation determined there was no scientific explanation for a healing which occurred after Endrich placed one of Preca's personal belongings under his pillow. His personal doctor Ċensu Tabone (later the President of Malta) was present.[15]
プレカが聖人となるためには、別の奇跡が必要だった。適切な候補者は、腹水、胆汁うっ滞、低凝固症に加えて急性肝不全を伴う微小結節性乳児肝硬変を患っていたエリック・カタニア（2002年生まれ）の治癒とされる事例に見つかった。[ 15 ]赤ちゃんは世界最大かつ最も専門的な小児肝臓センターであるキングス・カレッジ病院に搬送された。[ 16 ]計画された治療は肝臓移植だったが、医師たちは臓器拒絶のリスクを懸念していた。赤ちゃんの両親は、プレカの遺体発掘時に使用された手袋を赤ちゃんにつけたと言われている。子供は回復し、医師たちは手術は全く必要ないと言っている。この報告書は2004年12月17日にローマで聖省の承認を受け、その後2006年2月23日にバチカン医療委員会の承認を得た。神学者も2006年10月30日にこれを承認し、聖省も2007年1月9日にこれを承認した。教皇ベネディクト16世は2007年2月22日に、プレカの直接の執り成しによる奇跡として治癒を承認し、プレカは2007年2月23日午前11時に枢機卿会議で祝典の日程を正式に決定した後、2007年6月3日にサンピエトロ広場で列聖された。この列聖により、プレカは2人目のマルタの聖人（1人目は聖プブリウス）となり、教皇は演説の中でプレカを「イエスの友」と呼んだ。[ 17 ]
2009年12月17日、マルタのハムルンにある聖カエタン教区教会で、ポール・クレモナ大司教が司式した厳粛なミサの中で、プレカの像が除幕された。像は、プレカが告解を聞いていた場所に置かれた。像の横には、彼の血のサンプルが入った聖遺物もある。ブロンズ像は彫刻家ジャンニ・ボニッチ[ 18 ]の作品で、パルマのカッジャーティで制作された。
オーストラリアのイーストメルボルンにある聖パトリック大聖堂の外には、プレカを記念する肖像胸像が建てられている。[ 19 ]