MALTATODAY.COM: Although Catholicism is the declared religion of 98% of the population, virtually every other form of religious faith is also represented in Malta. On the one hand we have the kaleidoscopic variety provided by the world’s most organized religion, in the world’s most Catholic country and on the other we have the kaleidoscope made of minute fragments of every other kind of faith. Beyond the confines of organised religion we find the faiths of atheism and that of Satanism. Beyond them still, the historical evidence of paganism in a wealth of temples remains hard to explain on a small group of islands which could not sustain a population of much more than 10,000 souls.
Catholicism
Catholicism is the established Church in Malta in terms of the Constitution. Claiming its origins in the conversion of the islanders by the Apostle Paul, it has certainly held political dominance since the coming of the Normans in 1090 although the idea of continuity from 60 AD is disputed. With the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelling Jews and Moriscos from the dominions of the Aragonese Empire, Malta became, at least nominally, completely Catholic.
Leaping to the present day, Malta remains probably the most Catholic country in the world including the Vatican whose population hails from other jurisdictions none of which can compete with the cultural dominance which Catholicism enjoys in Malta. This fact produces an unchallenged Catholic reality and permits the articulation of every possible form of living one’s Catholic faith. >>> Harry Vassallo | Wednesday, April 8, 2009
