Charles Scicluna to be made Archbishop

Mgr Charles Scicluna, 55, will be appointed Archbishop by the end of this week, according to sources.

A Curia source confirmed that the Auxiliary Bishop, who was Apostolic Administrator since the resignation of Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona in 2014, will take his place.

Opposition leader tweeted his heartfelt congratulations to the vocal bishop, who took a vocal stand against gay adoption at a time when the Church was taking a back seat from confronting political issues.

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Scicluna’s appointment follows years of service at the Vatican where he was as Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by the side of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI.

He was later tasked with the Church’s fight against sexual abuse by priests.

Scicluna is also president of a Vatican College which will consider appeals moved before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith related to serious offences by priests.

Scicluna will be named as Malta's new Archbishop on Friday,

Born in Toronto, Canada, Scicluna came to Malta with his family in 1960 and was educated at St Aloysius College and the University of Malta from where he graduated as a lawyer and in theology. He was ordained a priest in 1986.

Between 1990 and 1995, he was defender of the bond and promoter of justice at Metropolitan Court of Malta, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Canon Law at the local Faculty of Theology and Vice-Rector of the Major Seminary of the Archdiocese. His pastoral activities included service at the parishes of St. Gregory the Great in Sliema and Transfiguration in Iklin. He served as chaplain to the local Convent of St. Catherine.

In 1995 he began his career in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, constructing the 2010 universal norms that extended the Church's statutes of limitations on reporting cases of sexual abuse.