Indeed, the Spirit of God continues to hover over the earth and his gentle breezes are refreshing the centre and the peripheries, as Hector Scerri calls his book … Throughout the book, Scerri shows how Pope Francis, Peter’s successor, is fulfilling the mandate once given by Christ to Peter: “Strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22:32). In our days Francis is strengthening the faith of the people in the sacred event of

From the Foreword by Ladislas Örsy, Georgetown University Law School, Washington, DC

… and, in a special way, Conferences of Bishops. We need to reflect on how better to bring about, through these bodies, intermediary instances of collegiality, perhaps by integrating and updating certain aspects of the ancient ecclesiastical organization. The hope expressed by the Council that such bodies would help increase the spirit of episcopal collegiality has not yet been fully realized. We are still on the way, part-way there.

Hector Scerri, born in Malta in 1965, and ordained priest in 1993, is Associate Professor of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at the University of Malta, where he has been teaching since 1998 and where he is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Theology. He is President of the Diocesan Ecumenical Commission, Malta, President of the Interdiocesan Theological Commission (Maltese Episcopal Conference), and Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. He has published books and articles on Sacramental Orthopraxis, Ecumenism, Spirituality and other theological themes.