Mons Guido Calleja

Monsignor Guido Calleja (1928-2018)

We salute today my former Pastor at St Julian's parish church Monsignor Guido Calleja, who passed away today at age of 89. He was my childhood parish priest who served at our parish church between 1956 and 1965. He spearheaded the building of the new church, which opened in 1968. Born in 1928 in Sliema, he was ordained a priest in 1953, and spent the first two years as secretary of Archbishop Gonzi, who eventually sent him to Rome to study sacred music. Back in Malta he was appointed parish priest of St Julian's parish in 1956 and was instrumental in starting the building of the new church, which was completed by his successor Fr John Galea. He also started the St. Julian's Choir in the late 1950s, also to be continued by his successor.  In 1965 he was sent to Stella Marish parish where he spent 7 years as the pastor there and then spent a few years leading the Administration section of the Chancery, as a Financial Secretary. In the 1980s, we both left Malta for the United States practically at the same time, myself to New York and Oregon and Fr Guido to the parish of St. John the Baptist in Magnolia Springs, Alabama, where he spent 22 years. 

Msgr Guido Calleja with St Teresa of Calcutta in the 1980s

He returned to Malta in 2013, and was a resident at Dar tal-Kleru for the past 5 years. I will always remember him as one of my childhood role-models in the priesthood who undoubtedly had a great impact on my vocation. He left a great legacy on the parishioners of St Julian's who remember him in the 1950s and 1960s, most of whom are now gone. I interviewed him a year ago for a local newspaper, and he was resting comfortably with other fellow priests, and I made sure to tell him how much I admired his handwriting, an impeccable penmanship that is now so hard to find. May he rest in peace.