The ANSA news agency reports that Msgr. Alfred Xuereb has been named Pope Benedict XVI’s second personal secretary.

The Maltese priest will work with German Father Georg Gaenswein, who has been the Pope’s secretary since 2003 before his election to the papacy.

Msgr. Xuereb replaces Polish Father Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, who was personal secretary to John Paul II and then to Benedict XVI.  In July he was named Latin-rite coadjutor Archbishop of Lviv in the Ukraine.