Charles Caruana

Charles Caruana CBE (9 October 1932, Gibraltar – 1 October 2010, Gibraltar ) was a Gibraltarian Roman Catholic bishop of Maltese descent. He was appointed sixth Roman Catholic Bishop of Gibraltar on 14 February 1998 and ordained on 24 May 1998. His retirement request was accepted on 18 March 2010. He died at St Bernard's Hospital, Gibraltar on 1 October 2010 following a bout of ill health.

During World War II he was evacuated with his family to London where he spent six months in Notting Hill Gate tube station seeking shelter from the bombings. He was first educated by the Christian Brothers when he was later re-evacuated to Northern Ireland. He already felt a religious calling by the age of 13 to 14, wanting to become a Christian Brother himself. On his return to Gibraltar, he joined the civil service, working in the Central Employment Exchange for four years.

Roman Catholic Bishop of Gibraltar On 14 February 1999, Father Caruana was the second Gibraltarian to have been appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Gibraltar by Pope John Paul II. He was consecrated on 24 May of the same year. On his birthday in 2007 he tendered his resignation to the Holy See, according to canon law provisos. On 18 March 2010 the Holy See announced that his resignation had been accepted and his successor as Bishop of Gibraltar would be the English redemptorist priest Ralph Heskett.

Honours Bishop Caruana was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2008, receiving the award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in March 2008.

Bishop Caruana Road on Gibraltar is named in his honour.

Gibraltar Song Festival Bishop Caruana was instrumental in initiating the Gibraltar Song Festival. He first thought of the idea as a way of raising funds to build the Community Centre. The festival became so successful that the festival was to become an annual event.

Works Bishop Caruana is the author of several books about his home town. In 1989 he published The Rock Under A Cloud. In 2009, he authored History of Our Lady of Europe, a book published by the Vatican Press as part of the commemoration of the 700 years of devotion of Our Lady of Europe, one of the Catholic patron saints of Gibraltar.

Death Bishop Emeritus Caruana died at St Bernard's Hospital on Friday 1 October 2010 at around 6 am. He had been in and out of hospital as he had been in poor health for a number of months but his health is believed to have deteriorated rapidly following a fall just over a week prior to his death, just 8 days before his 78th birthday.