On 16 July Pope Francis has appointed Fr Sandro Overend Rigillo OFM as Vicar Apostolic of Benghazi in Libya. Fr Sandro will be consecrated Bishop by the laying of hands of the Apostolic Nuncio of Malta Mgr Savio Hon Tai-Fai SDB on Tuesday 22 August 2023 at the Franciscan parish church and sanctuary of the Madonna tas-Sacro Cuor in Sliema. The assistant bishops in the consecration will be Mgr Charles Jude Scicluna, Archbishop of Malta, and Mgr George Bugeja OFM, Vicar Apostolic of Tripoli in Libya.
Fr Sandro Overend was born in Sliema on 31 January 1959. He entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1976 and was ordained priest on 29 June 1984. He studied Patristic Theology at the Pontifical Institute Augustinianum and in the Lateran University in Rome. He was appointed rector of the international OFM College of Sant’Antonio at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. He then became secretary general of the Franciscan Order at the General Curia of the Friars Minor. Back in Malta in 2008 he was elected Minister Provincial of the Maltese OFM Province. In 2015 he was back in Rome as Guardian of the General OFM Curia.
In the meantime, the last Vicar Apostolic of Benghazi, Mgr Sylvester Carmel Magro OFM had retired to Malta after reaching 75 years, and he died shortly afterwards on 20 January 2018. He had praiseworthily remained in Benghazi even after the destruction of the Franciscan church and friary of the Immacolata Concezione. during the civil war in Libya. For some time, the Vicar Apostolic of Tripoli, Mgr George Bugeja OFM, was appointed as Apostolic Administrator of Benghazi and Derna, until 2019, when Fr Sandro who was the general delegate for the Libya mission, was appointed as Apostolic Administrator.
The Libya mission has historically been under the care of the Franciscans, and was divided into Apostolic Vicariates especially during the time of Italian colonization of Libya. Apostolic Vicariates are the equivalent of Dioceses in mission territories and fall under the direct responsibility of the Dicastery for Evangelization. The Benghazi Vicariate was established in 1927 in what used to be called the Vicariate of Cyrenaica. After the revolution of 1969 in Libya, the only two Vicariates that remained were those of Tripoli and Benghazi. In 1997 the Vicariate of Benghazi was entrusted to the care of Mgr Sylvester Carmel Magro, while that of Tripoli was entrusted to the care of Mgr George Bugeja in 2016. Ever since the early 1990s the Order of Friars Minor has entrusted the Maltese OFM Province with the juridical responsibility of the Libya Mission. Many Maltese friars have offered their services to the mission in historical times and in the more recent past. The presence of a strong Maltese community in Libya during the last century was an incentive to develop this mission among Maltese migrants. Nowadays the work of the Franciscans is concentrated solely upon the pastoral care of immigrant workers in Libya.
