Originally a Jesuit retreat house – Archbishop of Malta receives Jesuit Superior General at the Curia in Floriana

On Saturday 11th May, the Most Rev Fr Arturo Sosa SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, met with His Grace Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna at the Archbishop’s Curia in Floriana. Fr Sosa was accompanied by EUM Provincial Fr Roberto del Riccio SJ and Fr Cipriano Díaz Marcos SJ, Regional Assistant for South Europe.

Mons Joseph Galea Curmi, Auxiliary Bishop of Malta also came to meet them.

Interestingly, the beautiful building housing the Archbishop’s Curia was built by the Jesuits in 1743 as a retreat house for use by clergy and laity. It was used by the Jesuits for 17 years before they were expelled from the island around the tumultuous years when the Jesuit Order was suppressed worldwide. The Jesuits returned in 1860 and used the building periodically but the edifice was now in the hands of the Diocese of Malta, and throughout its history it was used to house military troops, as well as being used as a military plague hospital and then as the Major Seminary. In 1977 the Curial administration of the Archdiocese of Malta moved to this building from the Archbishop’s Palace in Valletta, and it has remained there ever since.

“With the present occupation of the building of the Archbishop’s Curia, which is the nerve centre of the Church in Malta for all her social and charitable action with people in need, Casa Manresa has truly come full circle.” Read more