Archbishop Charles Scicluna presided over the Episcopal Ordination of Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea Curmi this evening

As Auxiliary Bishop, Mgr Galea-Curmi, 54, will be the closest collaborator and advisor of Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna with leadership responsibilities in the Curia and in diocesan pastoral ministry.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna delivered the homily during the Episcopal Ordination.

He thanked Mgr Galea-Curmi, “on behalf of the Church in Malta, for accepting the new mission that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is entrusting to you from the hands of His Holiness Pope Francis. I thank God for all the people that guided you towards this total self-giving as a successor of the Apostles, as a bishop who is called to give his life for his sheep.”

“The mission of the bishop today, your mission, dear Bishop Joseph, is a clear and true sign of the presence of Jesus among his people. As St Paul writes: ‘So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ ‘As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.’”

Photos: Curia – church.mt/photos.

The Bishop-elect also had to make a number of promises during his ordination:

i) to discharge by the grace of the Holy Spirit until death the office entrusted to him by the Apostles; 

ii) to preach the Gospel of Christ with constancy and fidelity;  

iii) to guard the deposit of faith, entire and incorrupt;  

iv) to build up the body of Christ, his Church, and to remain in the unity of that body together with the Order of Bishops under the authority of the successor of Saint Peter the Apostle;  

v) to render obedience faithfully to the successor of the blessed Apostle Peter;  

vi) to guide the holy people of God in the way of salvation as a devoted father and sustain them with the help of my fellow ministers, the priests and deacons;  

vii) to be welcoming and merciful to the poor, to strangers, and to all who are in need; 

viii) to be a good shepherd to seek out the sheep who stray and gather them into the Lord’s fold;  

ix) to pray without ceasing to almighty God for the holy people and to carry out the office of high priest without reproach.  

Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Joseph Galea-Curmi as Auxiliary Bishop of Malta in June.

Mgr Galea Curmi was born of the late Paul and Josette née Mifsud Bonnici, in Birkirkara, on 1 January 1964, and is the third of six children. Mgr Galea-Curmi was educated at Stella Maris School, Balzan, at the Secondary School of St Paul's Missionary College, Rabat, and at St Aloysius College (Sixth Form), Birkirkara.

He entered the Archbishop's Seminary in 1982. After completing his studies and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Faculty of Theology, he was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood by the Archbishop of Malta, Monsignor Joseph Mercieca, on 5 July 1991. Monsignor Galea-Curmi was sent to further his studies at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome and obtained a doctorate in Pastoral Theology in 1998. His doctoral thesis was entitled "The Diocesan Synod as a Pastoral Event. A Study of the Post-Conciliar Understanding of the Diocesan Synod".