The Rev. Fr Emmanuel Barbara OFM Cap, the Provincial Minister of the Maltese Capuchins, has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of the Malindi diocese in Kenya.
Fr Emmanuel was born on 27 October 1949, in Gzira and after hearing God’s calling decided to join the Capuchins as a novice on 19 September 1965. On 26 September of the following year he made his first religious profession and immediately began studying for the ministerial priesthood. After seven years of training, Fr Emmanuel was ordained deacon on 5 August 1973 and priest on 20 July 1974 at St John’s co-Cathedral in Valletta.
After his ordination, Fr Emmanuel held various ministries within the Maltese Capuchin Province. From 1974 to 1976 he was a vicar priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in San Gwann. His natural intellectual capabilities led his superiors to send him to study for the Licentiate in Moral Theology at the Alfonsianum Institute in Rome. On his return to Malta, Fr Emmanuel taught moral theology at the INSERM (National Institutum Studiorum Ecclesiasticorum Religiosorum Melitensium) for 13 years. He was also Rector of the Institute from 1981 to 1983. Three years earlier, from 1978 to 1980, the Capuchin Order entrusted him with the hospital chaplaincy ministry at St Luke’s Hospital. In addition, he was local superior of the Capuchin fraternity in Xemxija from 1980 to 1983 and finally Provincial Minister of the Maltese Capuchin Province from 1983 to 1989.
Faithfully adhering to Jesus’ authoritative words to Peter: “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5, 4), Fr Barbara continued to exercise his priestly ministry and Capuchin consecration in Kenya. From 1990 to 1996 he was director of formation in Nairobi, and from 1990 to 1992 was the caretaker of the formation house in Lang’ata and professor at Tangaza College in Nairobi. After spending three years teaching theology students, he was once again sent to Rome to study for a doctorate in Moral Theology at the Alfonsianum from 1992 to 1994. On his return to Kenya, he resumed his teaching ministry at Tangaza College in Nairobi for five years.
At the Vice-Provincial Chapter of 1996, Fr Emmanuel was elected as the first Vice-Provincial of Kenya for three years and from 1999 to 2008 he was Professor of the Faculty of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in Nairobi. Since his return to Malta in 2008, Fr Emmanuel has been the Spiritual Director of a secondary school and a teacher to young religious foreigners living here. The Maltese Capuchins acknowledged his leadership skills by electing him for the third time as their Provincial Minister in the Chapter last year. On 9 July 2011, Fr Emmanuel was appointed President of the European Capuchins Conference (CENOC).
The Diocese of Malindi, of which Fr Emmanuel is to be bishop, was established in 2000. It is a suffragan of Mombasa Archdiocese and covers an area of 33,254 square kilometres with a population of 539,000 inhabitants, 25,509 of whom are Catholic.
The Malindi Diocese currently has 17 parishes, 35 priests (11 diocesan and 24 religious), 30 religious brothers, 44 nuns and eight major seminarians. Fr Emmanuel Barbara will be the second Bishop of Malindi Diocese, after the demise of its first Maltese Bishop, Mons. Frans Baldacchino OFM Cap, on 13 October 2009.
Mons. Emmanuel Barbara OFM Cap, may you be a worthy servant of God’s People in the Malindi Diocese!