Fr Joseph Galea Curmi will be Archbishop Charles Scicluna’s right-hand man.

Fr Joseph Galea Curmi will be Archbishop Charles Scicluna’s right-hand man as the Curia’s top brass brace themselves for the anticipated change.

Fr Galea Curmi, 51, was yesterday officially appointed Vicar General, a role of significant importance within the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

The priest, who was responsible for coordinating the Synod at the turn of the millennium, will take over the post previously occupied by Mgr Scicluna when he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop in 2012.

“My role is to collaborate closely with the Archbishop and help him in his mission to have a listening, welcoming, discerning and serving Church,” Fr Galea Curmi said when contacted.

Ecclesiastical institutions should be at the service of the Church’s pastoral mission, he added.

Acknowledging the Archbishop faced a “big challenge”, Fr Galea Curmi said this could also be turned into an opportunity “with the help of many others and prayer”.

His appointment is expected to be the first in a series of changes the Archbishop will make in the coming weeks.

A notable absence in the new set-up will be former pro-vicar general Anton Gouder, who resigned his post along with 14 archbishop delegates, who headed various secretariats that operated from the Curia.

A Curia spokesman said the resignations were a customary occurrence every time a new archbishop was ordained.

“Given that they are delegates appointed by the Archbishop they offer their resignation to give the new Archbishop the chance to appoint his own team,” the spokesman said.

He confirmed that Mgr Gouder would not be reappointed to his previous role, which was created by Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona to assist the former late Auxiliary Bishop Annetto Depasquale.

Mgr Anton Gouder will be assigned other duties by the Archbishop

“Mgr Gouder will be assigned other duties by the Archbishop,” the spokesman said.

Mgr Gouder was perceived by many to be the real archbishop during Mgr Cremona’s tenure, blocking the desired changes.

But in an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta last year, Mgr Cremona insisted Mgr Gouder had been unjustly labelled as “the bad guy”.

“He was of tremendous help to me. He never tried to hinder me or my work and whenever we disagreed he would tell me you’re the Archbishop, you have the final word,” Mgr Cremona had said.

The new Archbishop will be the sole guest on Times Talk, this evening on TVM at 6.45pm.

Who is Fr Galea Curmi?

• He was ordained a priest on July 5, 1991, having studied theology at the University of Malta and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

• His doctoral thesis was entitled The Diocesan Synod as a Pastoral Event, something which came in useful when he coordinated the Synod at the turn of the millennium.

•  Fr Galea Curmi is a lecturer in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta and serves in the parish of the Annunciation, Balzan.