Watch: ‘Archbishop Cremona Cried When He Was Pressured To Resign’ – Fr Charles Tabone
Fr Charles Tabone said the late Fr Paul Cremona cried in when he faced mounting internal pressure to resign as Archbishop of Malta.
“Archbishop Cremona didn’t resign because of health problems, he resigned because he faced pressure,” Fr Tabone, who was his close friend, told TVM.
“He faced months of pressure, both direct and indirect, to resign and the indirect pressure hurt him even more. He was told he wasn’t good enough to be Archbishop because he’s tired and sick – he wasn’t sick but he was tired, as verified by a psychiatrist.”
Fr Tabone recalled visiting Fr Cremona one day and finding the Archbishop in tears as he held a newspaper in his hands.
“I cried alongside him. He told me ‘I’ve never hurt anyone but look at what they’ve done to me.’ And it’s true that he never hurt anyone, he loved the priests a great deal.”
The Archbishop stepped down in 2014 and was succeeded by the current Archbishop Fr Charles Scicluna.
In his resignation speech, Fr Cremona said that he didn’t harbour any resentment towards anyone, and Fr Tabone said he lived by those words.
“He had a lot of serenity after he resigned and that truly required God’s grace. The Church commences the beatification process, as I’m sure it will be for my friend Paul, by determining heroic virtue, and that was a prime example of it.”
Fr Cremona’s funeral will take place tomorrow at the St John’s Co-Cathedral.
READ NEXT: Malta Seeks To Ban Plastic Balloons And Confetti From Open Air Events
