13 September 2007 Rating 18% No Comment  

Mgr Alfred Xuereb, an esteemed member of the Gozitan clergy, has taken office as the new assistant personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI. Mgr Xuereb succeeds Mgr Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, popularly known as "Don Mietek", who served as assistant personal secretary to Pope John Paul II from 1996 until his death, and then to Pope Benedict. Mgr Mokfzycki is to remain at the Vatican to give a proper handover to Mgr Xuereb, he will then be consecrated coadjutor archbishop of the Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv in Ukraine. In addition to running the pope's private office, the Pope's personal secretaries live in the papal household, concelebrate Mass with the pope each morning and also dine with him. The secretaries also accompany the Pope on foreign trips and at least one of them joins the Pope for his annual summer vacation in the Italian Alps, and at the Papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo. Mgr Xuereb was born on October the 14th 1958, and became a priest on May the 26th 1984. He celebrated his first Solemn High Mass at St George's basilica in the context of the July festivities in honour of St George.