/library/oar/handle/123456789/104172 2025-11-15T08:56:18Z 2025-11-15T08:56:18Z Fiorini, Stanley /library/oar/handle/123456789/87937 2022-01-31T09:34:15Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Quċċija, Convivium, Żerda : Maltese customs originating from religious Greek tradition Authors: Fiorini, Stanley Abstract: The Modern Maltese definition of the noun quċċija, according to Aquilina’s Dictionary, is: "A ceremony consisting in the presentation of a basket containing grain, toys and other miscellaneous articles, to a child on the completion of its first year, in order to be able to foretell its future inclinations by the choice it may make." Although the lexicographer’s inclusion of “grain” among the “miscellaneous articles” may have been only a convenient, apposite insertion to justify his etymology of the term from Sicilian cuccia – zuppa fatta di frumento bollito nell’acqua o nel latte con zucchero ed altri savori – citing Mortillaro’s Dizionario, it betrays the historical basis for the anachronistic “grain” ingredient. [excerpt]

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z Doublet, Nicholas Joseph /library/oar/handle/123456789/87929 2022-01-31T08:24:44Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: An evaluation of the episcopate of archbishop Mauro Caruana through his pastoral letters (1915-1943) Authors: Doublet, Nicholas Joseph Abstract: “Mgr Caruana was a religious, and a religious must seek perfection. Was he a true religious? Yes, beyond all doubt. Elevated to the episcopal dignity and arrayed in episcopal robes, he never set aside the religious spirit.” Mgr Galea, one of his closest collaborators, so defined him in the funerary oration he gave in his honour. To his contemporaries, however, the Benedictine spirit praised by Galea, was often a source of frustration. Proud of their Italian spirit, the majority of the local clergy always remained suspicious of the pro- British bishop, an outsider the colonial power had imposed upon them. During his lifetime, he was to face a good share of controversy. Yet he devotedly led the local Church for 28 years through turbulent times, as Europe went from the grips of one Great War to a second. After his demise, he was largely forgotten, neglected in the silence of his tomb, his merits largely ignored in keeping with a historiographical tradition often unwilling to go beyond the polemical. Our people remember only his successor, Mgr Michael Gonzi. Although Gonzi was not among Caruana’s proposed candidates when the latter insisted on having an auxiliary or coadjutor to assist him, the Holy See ultimately chose Gonzi, a decision Caruana accepted, and was ready to sustain. Studies on Caruana have, so far, remained limited, the few exceptions usually linked to the politico- religious question, the first of a number that were to mark the contemporary history of the Church in twentieth century Malta. The apologetics have broken this silence, such as the sketches published by Michael Galea. However, a serious biography of this bishop, who led the Church at a formative moment of our nation, remains lacking. We here propose a reading of this figure through a brief study of his pastoral letters, conscious that given the specific theological aims of such a tool, it can only permit, at best, a partial reading of the historical reality. [excerpt]

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z Ellul, Peter /library/oar/handle/123456789/87928 2022-01-31T08:24:19Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Il prologo del libro dell’Apocalisse di Giovanni (1:1-3) : studio esegetico-teologico Authors: Ellul, Peter Abstract: L’incipit del Libro, Ἀποκάλυψις (Apokalypsis), ha dato il nome al libro di Giovanni e dagli inizi del 1800, a tutto un genere di letteratura e di teologia che non finisce mai di far discutere. Ha infine arricchito il vocabolario universale dell’aggettivo “apocalittico,” erroneamente identificato come “catastrofico.” Nell’Apocalisse il concetto di rivelazione sembra segnare un ulteriore sviluppo: l’αποκαλύπτω (apokalyptō) di Gesù viene bensì da Dio e si inscrive nella manifestazione escatologica degli ultimi tempi. Questa rivelazione deve illuminare il “dopo Gesù” e dare senso alla grande tribolazione della storia, cose che la Chiesa possa passare senza cadere nello scoramento e nell’apostasia e, invece, restando fedele fino a che il Signore verrà (Ap 2:25; 3:11). La frase rivelazione di Gesù Cristo ha una sua originalità perché mai prima era usata come titolo di un libro, nemmeno di genere apocalittico. Senza alcun verbo e riportando il nome completo “Gesù Cristo,” ha la forma solenne di un titolo.

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/87927 2022-01-31T08:23:55Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Footnotes and finitude Abstract: I stand before you on this occasion bearing some thoughts that somehow extend to all of us present, although under the guise of something slightly strange. To grant me your attention as I divulge these strange thoughts that I am honoured to impart on this day, is to grant me, in the words of Simone Weil, “the rarest and purest form of generosity.”1 My oration today is an ode to footnotes – the enumerated snippets of text we sometimes find at the bottom of a page. Let us compare these for a moment to endnotes, which are more uncompromising, forcing us, very confusingly, to endure some acrobatics to get to them at the back of a book, or at the end of each chapter. Footnotes, I believe, are a much more considerate form of organisation. Quite unfairly, they both produce the same result: the event of slipping in information that is relevant but not quite relevant enough to make it to the main body of text. [excerpt]

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z