It's a churchyard not a courtyard

I have noticed that in all press reports and even in The Times editorial, reference is being made to a St John's "courtyard running along Merchants Street" as one of the possible sites for the proposed Co-Cathedral museum.

What is being referred to as a courtyard is in actual fact the cathedral's churchyard. A churchyard is the enclosed ground round or adjacent to a church, often used for burial. St John's churchyard is in fact a burial ground, a cemetery, a campo santo, where traditionally the slain of the Great Siege were interred.

The site is designated as such in numerous publications on St John's including Hannibal Scicluna's The Church of St John in Valletta which also includes a plan of the Co-Cathedral.

I would like to hope that the mistaken designation of St John's churchyard is due more to ignorance of the English terminology than to a deliberate attempt to obliterate the sacred character of the Co-Cathedral's campo santo.