Over 1,550 Church marriages last year

A total of 1,556 Church marriages were registered in Malta last year, the Curia said yesterday.

The data, compiled from the Marriage Office of the Archbishop's Curia, does not include marriages registered in the diocese of Gozo.

Three couples cancelled their registration to marry in 2004, the Curia said.

The partners in 1,401 of the marriages were Maltese. There were also 107 marriages between Maltese and foreigners. Fifty-three of them were between Maltese Catholics and foreign Catholics; 42 between Maltese Catholics and foreign Christians who are not Catholic and 12 between Maltese and non-Christian foreigners.

The Curia said there were also eight marriages between Maltese who are living in other countries and 40 marriages between foreigners.

The 107 foreigners who united in a Church marriage with a Maltese partner consisted of 63 men and 44 women from 30 different countries. The breakdown of this number is 27 from the UK, 12 from Italy, 14 from Russia, eight from the US, four from the Philippines, three each from France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Nigeria and Sweden, two each from Australia, Belgium, Syria, Spain and Uzbekistan and one each from South Africa, Bulgaria, China, Jordan, Greece, India, Iraq, Canada, Malaysia, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Switzerland.

The biggest number of marriages took place in May, June and July. May was the most popular month, with 242, closely followed by June with 241. A total of 189 couples got married in July.

The smallest number of marriages took place in February - 28.

The Curia said that 52 marriages were convalidated in Church - 48 of them after between one to five years; three after between six to 10 years and one after between 11 and 15 years.

A convalidated marriage is when the couple decide to unite in a Church marriage after having married outside the Church.