The Vatican today announced that Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna has been appointed to head a Vatican college within the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith to examine appeals to the ordinary session of the Congregation.

The members of the College of which Bishop Scicluna is the President are made up of four cardinals and two bishops with a cardinal and a bishop as substitutes.

Bishop Scicluna was named Apostolic Administrator after the resignation of Mgr Paul Cremona from the post of Archbishop, and he was seen among the favourites to be named as head of the Maltese archdiocese.

Contacted by The Malta Independent, Mgr Scicluna said that the role he has been given in Rome is compatible with any role that he holds or may hold in Malta, including possibly that of Archbishop.

He said that the appointment given means that he will need to fly to Rome once a month to lead the college and it will not impinge on his duties here.

Bishop Scicluna was the Vatican's long-time sex abuse prosecutor and his new role at the Vatican is to hear appeals by priests accused of molesting minors.

Pope Francis in November announced the creation of the panel to speed up the Vatican's review of appeals of priests sanctioned for abuse. In recent years, the Vatican has been receiving on average 400-500 accusations a year, significantly increasing the caseload of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Mgr Scicluna was the congregation's sex crimes prosecutor from 2002-2012 and was responsible for cracking down on abusive priests with tougher new laws.