Bishop Peter Baldacchino

Bishop Peter Baldacchino was born on 5 December 1960 in Sliema, Malta. After attending Saint Francis School in Msida for elementary school from 1966 to 1971 and Mount Carmel College in Santa Venera for secondary school from 1971 to 1978, he obtained a diploma in sciences from the University of Malta in 1984 and a qualification as an electronic technician from Umberto Calosso Trade School in Santa Venera from 1984 to 1986. He worked as technical manager of a bottling plant from 1980 to 1989. He is a member of the Neocatechumenal Way. As a seminarian of the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary in Kearny, New Jersey, in the Archdiocese of Newark, U.S.A., he continued his ecclesiastical studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, obtaining the Master of Divinity from 1990 to 1996. He was ordained a priest on 25 May 1996 for the Archdiocese of Newark. Since ordination he has served in a number of pastoral roles, including parochial vicar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Ridgewood from 1996 to 1999, chancellor of the mission sui iuris of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 1999, and parish priest of Our Lady of Divine Providence on Providenciales Island from 2000. On 30 March 2009 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. In 2014 he was appointed titular bishop of Vatarba and auxiliary of Miami. Within the Episcopal Conference he is a member of the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People and of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations' working group for the revision of the Program of Priestly Formation. In addition to English, he speaks Maltese, Italian, Spanish, and Creole.