Joe Vella Gauci

Biographical Note

Joe Vella Gauci studied Philosophy and Theology at the Gozo Seminary, at Fareham Tertiary College and the Open University in the UK. He was ordained a priest in 1988 and pursued studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London where he was awarded BA (Hons) in Politics and Religious Studies and Masters in Oriental and African Religious Studies. Vella Gauci obtained a Ph.D in Islamic Studies at the Birmingham University, his thesis being Christian-Muslim relations as a Topos in Maltese Historiography, Literature and Culture.

He travelled extensively in the Arab world and contributed through several articles, including his publication in 1991 entitled: Islamic Law and Mixed Marriages in Malta. In 2006 he was nominated as a member of the preparatory committee for the Arab-European Forum for Development and Dialogue.

During his tenure as Archpriest of his native Gozo Cathedral parish (1996-2007) he promoted the full well-being of people and reached out to the unchurched, divorced and remarried, homosexuals, addicts, and singles.

Vella Gauci lectured at the Faculty of Arts (Department of Oriental Studies) at the University of Malta. He was also engaged as a Distance Learning Tutor at the Islamic College for Advanced Studies at the University of Middlesex.

In 2010, he was appointed Senior Adviser in International Relations and Religious Freedom at the Secretariat of the Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in Brussels, where he was responsible for analysing, monitoring and contributing to policies planned by the European institutions. In Brussels he was also entrusted with the organisation of several keynote events, later collated in his publication International Perspectives on Religious Freedom – Proceedings of Conference on Religious Freedom (Brussels, 2013).

In 2013, Vella Gauci was appointed Malta’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO as well as the Maltese Government’s representative at ICCROM in Rome.

Joe Vella Gauci is also one of the founders and chairs the Board of Directors of Fondazzjoni Kenn u Tama which in 2014 inaugurated Dar Emmaus, Gozo’s first residential emergency shelter on the island. In the voluntary sector, he also serves as chairman of the Emergency Response and Rescue Corps in Gozo.

In 2015 he was appointed, as Regional Development Agent for Gozo for the ESF 3.234 Leap Project and now serves as Director of the FSWS Gozo Branch Operations. Eventually, in 2019, he was appointed by the Parliamentary Secretary for Persons with Disabilities and Active Ageing to chair the Solitudni Project, a study of how to prevent the loneliness issue amongst Maltese senior citizens.

Vella Gauci was awarded Ġieħ il-Belt Victoria by the Victoria Local Council in 2015 and Ġieħ Għawdex in 2021, and made a member of the National Order of Merit in 2020.

He currently chairs the Regional and National Festivities Committee within the Ministry for Gozo, and the National World Heritage Technical Committee within the Ministry of National Heritage, Arts and Local Government, and is responsible for a Traineeship Scheme for the Vulnerable and a Social Cooperative offering employment opportunities for vulnerable people in Gozo.

He also sits on the College of Consultors and the Presbyterial College of the Gozo Diocese, and the Dwejra Steering Committee within the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change.

References

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