The Holy Father appointed Monsignor Mario Grech, to date Bishop of Gozo, Malta, Pro-Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, announced this morning, October 2, 2019, in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, acting Secretary-General of the Synod.
Monsignor Grech will take part as a member in the forthcoming Synodal Assembly, which will begin on October 6, added Cardinal Baldisseri. Bishop Grech will exercise the office of Pro-Secretary General until the end of the Secretary General’s mandate; he will then assume his post,” continued Cardinal Baldisseri, who will celebrate his 80th birthday in September of 2020.
Therefore, in taking possession of his office, the Pro-Secretary General “will walk with to the Secretary-General to get to know the institution and its components directly, and to be familiar with the processes and instances of competence,” he added.
Cardinal Baldisseri also said that the Pope appointed Bishop Grech as Apostolic Administrator of the same diocese (of Gozo) “until there is a new Bishop.”
Bishop Mario Grech
Monsignor Grech was born on February 20, 1957, in Qala, Malta. He was ordained priest in 1984 and Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Gozo in November of 2005.
Gozo, which forms part of the Republic of Malta, is a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean. It covers a surface of 67 square kilometers, a quarter of the whole of the archipelago. Its population numbers some 32,000 people. The diocese is one of the smallest of the Catholic Church, but also one of the ones with the highest rates of priests compared with the population.
