Vincenzo Labini : Malta's last foreign Bishop

Abstract

Among the bishops - all foreigners with the exception of Baldassare Cagliares (see pp. 291- 3) - who led the Diocese of Malta, the figure of Mgr. Vincenzo Labini surpasses most of the others because he flourished through one of the most momentous periods of Maltese history (1780- 1807): his episcopate covers eighteen years of rule by the Grandmasters of the Order of St. John, the two-year occupation by the French Republic and the first seven years of the British era. ·Bishop Labini had to fight the indifference into which the elite of the Maltese had fallen on account of the influence of Freemasonry and Freethinking and had to toil hard and incessantly in order to instil into the hearts of the Maltese a deeply felt and active religious spirit. Indeed, he showed himself an able diplomat and a subtle politician by following a practical line of conduct and a policy of adaptation with the reforms and counter-reforms which the new rulers decided to introduce at that time in Malta. The Episcopal See of Malta became vacant in 1780 when the Diocesan Bishop, Mgr. Carmine Giovanni Pellerano, afflicted by old age and infirmity, submitted his resignation or rinuncia for the Bishopric of Malta.