Archbishop Charles Scicluna has formally appointed Fr Joe Galea Curmi as his Vicar General.

"Please pray for him in his new mission," the new archbishop said in a tweet.

Fr Galea Curmi was born in Malta on January 1, 1964, and ordained a priest on July 5, 1991.

He studied at the Faculty of Theology, University of Malta, and at the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, where he obtained a doctorate in Theology (with specialisation in Pastoral Theology). The doctoral Thesis was entitled The Diocesan Synod as a Pastoral Event. A Study of the Post-Conciliar Understanding of the Diocesan Synod (published in 2005).

After his studies in Rome, Fr Galea Curmi was appointed Assistant Pastoral Secretary of the Archdiocese. He was coordinator of the Synod of the Archdiocese of Malta 1999-2003 and editor of the Synod final documents published by the Archdiocese of Malta in 2003 and 2004.

He edited several two-year and three-year Archdiocesan Pastoral Plans published after the Synod as part of the Synod implementation; and worked in the organising team of the Diocesan Assembly which is an annual event since 2004, following the Diocesan Synod.

Fr Galea Curmi is a lecturer in the Faculty of Theology, University of Malta, secretary of the Foundation for Theological Studies, a member of the Board of the Institute for Pastoral Formation in the Archdiocese of Malta and a member of the European Society for Catholic Theology.

He serves in the Parish of the Annunciation, Balzan and as Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Maltese section of Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation.