1,488 Church marriages registered last year

A total of 1,488 Church marriages were registered with the archdiocese of Malta last year, the Archbishop's Curia said.

Of the total, 1,362 marriages were between Maltese couples and 81 were marriages between Maltese and foreigners.

A breakdown of the 81 shows that 31 marriages were between Maltese Catholics and foreign Catholics, 33 between Maltese Catholics and foreign Christians who are not Catholic and 17 marriages between Maltese with foreigners who are not Christians.

A total of 45 other marriages took place between foreign persons, the Curia said.

It added that 78 foreign persons from 28 countries were united in Church marriages with Maltese partners - 53 men and 25 women. These came mostly from the UK - 22, Italy 10, Russia six, Germany four, three each from India, Latvia, Morocco and Poland, two each from Holland, Switzerland and Thailand and one each from Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, the Philippines, Japan, Croatia, Liberia, Lithuania, Nigeria, Romania, Serbia, Spain, the US, Sweden, Tunisia and Turkey.

Most marriages took place in May - 232, in June there were 226 and in September 144. Only 17 were married in January.

Marriages that were made outside the Church but were then confirmed in Church amounted to 52.

During that year seven couples had cancelled their registration for marriage.

The statistics do not include marriages in Gozo.