Fr. Sandro Overend OFM is the new Minister Provincial of the Maltese Franciscan Province.  He was elected by the friars gathered at the Provincial Chapter at Porziuncola Retreat House, and his appointment was confirmed by the General Government of the Order represented by the President of the Chapter Fr. Austin McCormack OFM.  The election followed upon the celebration of the votive Mass of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Sandro Overend was born in Sliema, Malta, and entered the Franciscan Order in 1976.  He was professed in 1978 and ordained priest on 29th June 1984.  He studied Patristic Theology at the Pontificial Institute Augustinianum in Rome and served the Order of Friars Minor as Rector of the College of the Students of the Pontifical University Antonianum, and as Secretary of the Order under the present Minister General Fr. José Rodríguez Carballo OFM.

Together with Fr. Sandro the following friars were elected for the offices of governing the Province in the Provincial Definitorium: Fr. Richard Stanley Grech as Vicar Provincial, and Frs. Eddie Pace, Marcellino Micallef, Martin Coleiro and Anton Farrugia as Definitors.

We wish all the best to the new Minister Provincial and to the friars elected to the “ministerium fratrum” (the ministry of the brothers), and pray the Holy Spirit, whom St. Francis called the true Minister General of the Order, to guide them in their work.