Politics and religion in Malta : the political-religious struggles of the twentieth century : a comparative study

Abstract

This dissertation is a case study of how the political-religious struggles of 20th century Malta were amongst the most controversial issues in the political development of the island. It also puts a light on how the issue affected the social development of the country. In order to better understand the subject of the study a detailed historical background to each crisis has been put together. In the first three chapters we go about tackling the subject by dividing each chapter into sub topics. Each chapter is divided into a specific structure which highlights different aspects of the confrontation. Each chapter starts off with an introduction and a short narrative. Then it moves on to discuss the main institutional actors and personalities. It continues by discussing the Constitutional status of the time, followed by an analysis of the short-term and long-term causes of the conflict. Then the chapter moves on to deal with the population's readiness for change and with the role and attitude the different British authorities had taken on the island at that specific point in time. Then the chapter concludes with a reflection of what were the short-term and long-term outcomes of the confrontation. In the fourth chapter which is the concluding chapter, we compare and contrast each sub topic from the previous three chapters and point out aspects which are similar or dissimilar to one another. Thus the aim of this dissertation is not to tell the story of these three political-religious confrontations of the 20th century, the details of which may be familiar to some though not to all, but to try to understand the evolving pattern of the often complex and sometimes difficult relationship between politics and the Church over a stretch of time which is characterized by rapid change in Maltese society and mentality.