Leonid McKay will be taking over as executive director of Caritas following the retirement of Mgr Victor Grech, who had set up the agency in Malta.

Mgr Grech is also retiring from archbishop's delegate of the Social and Charity Work Secretariat, a post that will be taken over by Mgr Charles Cordina.

Mgr Cordina, 65, will promote, coordinate, animate and develop social and charity work including at Caritas, homes for the elderly, children’s homes and homes for the disabled.

Mr McKay, 34, has been involved in Caritas for the past nine years specialising in research, with particular attention to material and social poverty. He was the brain behind several studies presented to the government in the field of social policy.

As executive director of Caritas Malta, he will continue to build on the Caritas services given to Maltese society free of charge particularly in the fields of drug abuse, usury, poverty and social problems.