Joe Micallef Stafrace, 1933-2021
Joe Micallef Stafrace had a distinguished career but, above all, he was a decent and well-read man.
He was loyal to the Labour Party but never afraid to criticise it or its leadership when he deemed necessary. Is-Sebħ, which he edited, became a daily in 1956. It was an anti-colonial mouthpiece at a time when Dom Mintoff’s party was seeking integration with Britain. One of its famous front-page editorials in February 1956, when Major-General Sir Robert Laycock was governor, was titled “Pay up or go home”.
Although Micallef Stafrace was a victim of the Church’s interdict in 1961 and got married in a sacristy, he was actually quite a religious person with an interest in theology, a man of principle with a high regard for morality.