Bishop George Bugeja, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, is being touted as a possible successor to Mgr Mario Grech at the head of the Gozo diocese, Times of Malta has learnt.

Sources close to the Gozitan curia said the 57-year-old bishop from Xagħra is being considered as the front runner as the position becomes vacant in the coming weeks.

Mgr Bugeja, they added, had emerged as “a compromise” between different factions within the Gozo diocese. 

The monsignor has been ‘locked’ in Malta since March due to the coronavirus pandemic which made it impossible for him to return to Libya. Contacted for a reaction, he declined to comment.

Last October, the Holy See announced that Bishop Grech had been appointed general pro-secretary of the Synod of Bishops.

Grech, 63, has served as bishop of Gozo since 2005 following the 33-year episcopate of Nikol Cauchi. He is staying on as apostolic administrator of Gozo until a new bishop is appointed.

Sources said the COVID-19 outbreak had delayed the transition, which was meant to happen around Easter.

A spokesman for the Gozo Curia said the decision rested with the Apostolic Nunctiature in consultation with the Congregation of Bishops in Rome.

When asked about the matter, the Apostolic Nunctiature said it was strictly confidential – in ecclesiastical terms, sub secreto pontificio (pontifical secret).

However, Mgr Grech had dropped a hint of his impending departure in his pastoral message to Gozitan parish priests of May 6, saying this could be the last time he was addressing them.

He has been in office as pro-secretary general to the Synod of Bishops since October and is expected to take Cardinal Baldisseri’s post as secretary general on the latter’s retirement at the end of August.

Franciscan Bishop George Bugeja, Vicar Apostolic of Tripoli, holds Easter Mass at the Church of San Francesco in the Libyan capital Tripoli on April 16, 2017. Photo: Mahmud Turkia/AFP

Who is Mgr George Bugeja?

Mgr Bugeja OFM has been the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli since February 2017. Born in Xagħra on July 1, 1962, he was ordained priest on July 5, 1986.

Apart from his philosophical and theological studies, he holds a diploma in journalism and spirituality.

He has served as parish priest in the parish of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Sliema, and as auditor of the ecclesiastical tribunal of the Diocese of Gozo. From 2010 to 2014, he was an official within the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples and in January 2015 was appointed superior of the Convent of St Anthony of Padova in Għajnsielem.

In July of that year, he was nominated coadjutor bishop to assist the-then 73-year-old Apostolic Vicar of the Libyan capital, Fr Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, who had been at the helm for 30 years.

Bugeja started his ministry in Tripoli on October 23, at a time when Libya was still going through civil unrest and political instability which followed the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in 2011. On February 14, 2016, he was appointed apostolic administrator of the vicarate of Benghazi following the resignation of Mgr Sylvester Magro.

Last December, he was succeeded by Fr Sandro Overend.