The appointment of Malta’s new Archbishop is expected to be made after the Vatican returns from its summer recess at the beginning of September, The Malta Independent can confirm.

Speaking to this paper, sources within the Archbishop’s Curia said that it was “highly probable” that the announcement would be made after the Vatican re-opens following its month-long recess.

The sources could not confirm the date on which the appointment will be made but confirmed that the two front runners for the post are Fr Lawrence Gatt, director at Dar tal-Providenza, and Seminary Rector Fr Anton Gouder. The former was recently reported as being the nomination put forward by the Vatican.

A third candidate who is being mentioned is Fr Fabio Attard from the Institute of Pastoral Formation, although his young age may work against him when compared to the other two heavyweights.

Both Fr Gatt and Fr Gouder are viewed as conservative stalwarts and would probably maintain the same stance adopted by Archbishop Mercieca throughout his 30-year tenure of office. Fr Attard is heavily involved in pastoral work with young people through the IPF. Among his recent endeavours was the publication of Un-coding Jesus Christ, a manual about the Da Vinci Code controversy.

Archbishop Mercieca’s recent statement that he was “in the last days of his apostolate” triggered off a frenzy of rumours regarding when he would effectively step down.

Yesterday, local news portal di-ve.com reported that the appointment of the new Archbishop’s could be announced within a few hours, but with the Curia currently on half days, that possibility appeared rather remote. Efforts to contact the Curia’s public relations department yesterday afternoon proved unsuccessful.

Archbishop Mercieca officially retired from the post of Archbishop when he turned 75 in 2003, according to

official protocol. However, he has remained in the post ever since as disagreements over his eventual successor

continued to surface.