Apostolic Administrator Charles Scicluna has been appointed president of a Vatican body dealing with serious offences committed by priests, but says this would not be incompatible with the role of archbishop should he be chosen.

The appointment was reported in the international press yesterday afternoon, raising the question of whether Mgr Scicluna had now been ruled out as a possible successor to Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona.

He is insisting, however, the new role will have no bearing on his work in Malta, which he was looking forward to continuing.

“This work is compatible with my continued mission within the Church in Malta.”

Asked specifically if it would conflict with the role of archbishop if he were to be nominated by the Pope, he said: “It is compatible with any such mission, there is no incompatibility.”

The new appointment, he added, would not take up too much of his time.

Mgr Scicluna will be heading to the Vatican once a month for a meeting of the college, which will consider appeals to decisions on serious offences committed by priests.

The Vatican meetings will consider appeals on serious offences committed by priests

The new body was set up by the Pope in November to speed up the Vatican’s appeals process.

In recent years, the Vatican has been receiving an average of 500 accusations a year, significantly increasing the caseload of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the body tasked with looking into them. Mgr Scicluna served as the Vatican’s prosecutor in sex abuse cases for several years and is an expert in Canon law.

He said there were no archbishops in the body, which is made up of four cardinals and two bishops – all of whom are also experts in Church law. Asked why a new archbishop for the island had not yet been appointed, Mgr Scicluna said it was normal for such a procedure to take several months.

“The process for the appointment is a rather lengthy one, and it is not unheard of for it to take up to two years,” he said, adding that Gibraltar had been awaiting a new archbishop since May 2014.

Asked when he expected the appointment to be made, Mgr Scicluna said he would be “apprehensive” if no decision was made by Easter.

Last month, Times of Malta reported that the decision process was expected to take around five months, meaning the Church would have a new head around the time of its biggest feast – Easter.

The Apostolic Nuncio is currently conducting a confidential consultation with influential individuals of his choosing that may also include lay people.

Mgr Scicluna said he had recently been consulted but had no knowledge of the top contenders for the Church’s main post.