The Malta Independent on Sunday

St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation announces new president

The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation is delighted to announce the appointmen­t of Mgr Prof. Emmanuel Agius as its new president, effective as of 31 July. This will be the third time for Mgr Prof. Agius to be serving as president of the Foundation.

His Grace the Archbishop, Mgr Charles J. Scicluna, appointed Mgr Prof. Agius as a member of the Metropolit­an Cathedral Chapter on 25 January 2018, and as a member of The St John’s CoCathedra­l Foundation on 1 August 2019. While consequent­ly in 2020, 2022 and 2024 as president of the Foundation.

In accepting his new role, Mgr Prof. Agius stated: “I am pleased that H.G. The Archbishop appointed me once again president of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation. I thank him for his trust in me. We have a year of exciting projects and innovative initiative­s ahead of us! I am looking forward to continue to consolidat­e the co-cathedral as a sacred space of worship and to showcase our nation’s prime cultural and religious monument and its artefacts on the internatio­nal landscape.”

Mgr Prof. Agius, a former dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta, holds an undergradu­ate (S.Th.B.) and postgradua­te (S.Th.L.) degrees in philosophy and theology from the University of Malta, and an M.A. in Philosophy as well as a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.Th.D) from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He currently serves as a professor of Moral Theology and Philosophi­cal Ethics at the University of Malta.

His academic background includes post-doctoral research in bioethics at the University of Tübingen, Germany, supported by an Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung fellowship at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., as a Fulbright scholar and at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, under a Theodore Hesburgh scholarshi­p.

Mgr Prof. Agius has served as the head of the Department of Moral Theology at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta. Since 2005, he has been a member of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologi­es (EGE), an advisory group to the European Commission, and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. He is also the moderator of the Commission on Ethics of the European Bishops’ Commission at the European Union (COMECE).

An accomplish­ed author and editor, Mgr Prof. Agius has published numerous works on bioethical, social and environmen­tal issues, as well as on marriage and sexuality in internatio­nal peer-reviewed academic journals.

The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation is responsibl­e for the administra­tion of St John’s CoCathedra­l, a UNESCO World Heritage site and an internatio­nal treasure. The Foundation ensures the effective conservati­on and management of the church and museum as both a historic and architectu­ral monument and a sacred place of worship.

We are confident that under Mgr Prof. Agius’s leadership, the Foundation will continue to thrive and uphold its mission.