Almost 1,600 Church marriages celebrated last year

A total of 1,597 Church marriages were registered at the Archdiocese of Malta last year, the Archbishop's Curia said.

Of those who were married in Church, 1,411 were Maltese and one of the marriages was between a Catholic and a non-Catholic Christian.

There were also 85 marriages between Maltese and foreigners, 35 between Catholics, 28 between Catholics and non-Catholic Christians and 22 between Catholics and non-Christians.

The foreigners consisted of 52 men and 33 women. They came from the UK - 18; Italy - nine; the US - six, China and Romania - four each; Morocco, the Netherlands, Serbia and Turkey - three each; Australia, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, France, Germany, India and Ukraine - two each and Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, the Philippines, Ireland, Canada, Latvia, Libya, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Thailand and Wales - one each.

Three weddings were of Maltese living abroad and there were also 88 weddings between foreigners.

With 261 weddings, June was the most popular month followed by May - 208 weddings and September - 176. January was the least popular with only 24 Church marriages being celebrated.

The Curia said that 55 couples who initially did not marry in the Church opted for a Church marriage after a while: 44 of them after less than five years, seven after between six and 10 years, two after between 11 and 15 years, and two after between 16 and 20 years.

There were 37 widows or widowers who remarried last year and 21 persons who remarried after their first marriage was declared null.

There were also two couples who cancelled their registration to marry.

The information does not include marriages in the Gozo diocese.