Robert Camilleri Azzopardi O.F.M. (24 April 1951 – 17 October 2023) was a Maltese Roman Catholic prelate who was the bishop of the

Diocese of Comayagua The Roman Catholic Diocese of Comayagua is a Latin suffragan bishopric in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa. The present diocese, erected 13 March 1963, revives a larger colonial bishopric. Its present cathedral episco ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

from 2004 until his death in 2023.

Biography

Robert Camilleri Azzopardi was born in

Ħamrun Hamrun (; ) is a town in the Southern Region, Malta, Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 9,244 as of March 2014. The people The townspeople are traditionally known as ''Tas-Sikkina'' (literally meaning 'of the knife' or 'those who c ...

Crown Colony of Malta The Crown Colony of the Island of Malta and its Dependencies (commonly known as the Crown Colony of Malta or simply Malta) was the British colony in the Maltese islands, today the modern Republic of Malta. It was established when the Malta Prot ...

on 24 April 1951, to John Camilleri and Marianne Azzopardi. He was the fifth in a family of six other brothers and three sisters. He became a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

and was ordained on 29 June 1975 by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. When back in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

he became the master of novices for three years and then departed as a missionary to

. In

he became the

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of La Libertad for 10 years when he was transferred to El Calvario in

Comayagüela Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

in 1992. On 26 July 2001,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed him as the Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa and Titular Bishop of Vagada. He was consecrated on the feast of the Assumption in the Basilica of Nuestra Senora de Suyapa by Cardinal

Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "friend of deer" ...

. In 2004, he was appointed to the

. He was installed as the third bishop on 24 July 2004. In June 2022, he was elected to a three-year term as president of the

Episcopal Conference of Honduras The Episcopal Conference of Honduras ( es, Conferencia Episcopal de Honduras, italic=unset) is an institution of the Catholic Church that brings together the bishops of Honduras to establish policies and programs for pastoral government. Function ...

. Camilleri Azzopardi died from a heart attack on 17 October 2023, at the age of 72.Muere Roberto Camilleri, presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal

References

1951 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Maltese Roman Catholic priests 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Honduras People from Ħamrun Franciscan bishops Roman Catholic bishops of Tegucigalpa Roman Catholic bishops of Comayagua Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II {{Honduras-RC-bishop-stub

Biography

See also

References