Pastoral planning in Malta

Abstract

Pastoral planning has been going on, in some form or other, in Malta, ever since the Church embarked on its mission to our Islands. During this century it became more rational. Cana, the Social Action Movement, and a number of diocesan commissions cultivated the fields entrusted to their care in a systematic and forward looking manner. Their sectorial endeavours were complemented by a holistic approach to church activity in view of concerted pastoral action .. The emergence of this type of pastoral planning can be reconstructed by reviewing the documents of the 1966, 1976 and 1985 Plans. The three documents touched most of the sectors of pastoral activity in the Archdiocese. Indeed, the 1966 document was commissioned for the whole Maltese province. The ten year intervals which marked the appearance of the documents witnessed to a steady, even if slow, evolution of the concept of comprehensive planning in Malta.