Former PN minister George Pullicino has been asked to form part of a technical committee tasked to oversee the preparations of diocese-related projects tied to Matera’s European Capital of Culture 2019 title.

Mr Pullicino – also an architect - was responsible for restoration works when he was minister.

Interestingly, Prof Paolo Rocchi – an internationally renowned restoration architect will sit on the same committee. Prof Rocchi also gives advice to the Vatican on restoration works and was responsible for the restoration of the St Francis Basilica in Assisi following the 1997 earthquake which shook central Italy.

Matera - a city and a province in the region of Basilicata in southern Italy - was recently chosen as the European Capital of Culture 2019.

Contacted by this newsroom, Mr Pullicino said that the diocese of Matera asked him to serve as one of the committee’s technical consultants, the committee of which will oversee the preparations of the city’s diocese projects tied to Matera’s cultural activities in 2019.

This week, the Archbishop of Matera, Mgr Salvatore Ligorio, along with his cultural delegation, Don Michele Lemi, were in Malta to oversee the digitalisation of archives process of the Curia after the Maltese diocese offered a helping hand to Matera’s diocese in a similar project.