The Church will be celebrating the end of the Pauline Year over the weekend with the presence of Papal representative Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council of the Family.
He will arrive on Saturday and will be taken to St Paul's Grotto, St Paul's Bay and Gozo before the celebrations culminate in a pontifical Mass at St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta.
Malta is one of seven countries where a direct representative of the Pope will be taking part in the celebrations. The countries - the Holy Land, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Greece - were selected because St Paul had visited them, although Malta is the only one which has retained its predominantly Catholic nature.
The Church announced the programme of events this week by saying this would be a chance for the Catholic Maltese community to feel "happy to be Christian" and celebrate its spirit as one.
The Archdiocese's Pastoral Secretary, Mgr Charles Cordina said the aim of the Pauline Year was to remember St Paul as a relevant figure in today's society since he was someone who never let up on his mission to profess the Catholic faith, despite having to battle hardships and at times be radical.
"We have to confront similar things today," Mgr Cordina said during a press conference.
The Pauline Year, which began last June 28, was organised internationally to mark the second millennium of the saint's birth, which historians have placed between the years 7 and 10 A.D.
During his visit, Cardinal Antonelli will be visiting the "legacy of St Paul", meeting lay persons working in three major Church agencies: the catechists from MUSEUM, the marriage counsellors from Cana and those who assist people with social problems for Caritas. Asked whether the Church had taken the Pope's apparent wish to come to Malta next year seriously, the new public relations officer Charles Tabone said jokingly that when someone asks the Pope to visit, he would never say he did not want to.
However, he emphasised that whenever the Pope heard about Malta he seemed especially delighted and very keen on making the visit as soon as possible. "But it is still very early to say," he added.
The Pope's comments were made last week during a visit by President George Abela to the Vatican. Dr Abela invited the Pope to visit the island during the 1950th anniversary of St Paul's shipwreck.
On Sunday, the Cardinal will visit St Paul's Bay and from there leave for Gozo in a private yacht where he will visit Nadur and later meet families in Munxar.
The activities on Monday (Mnarja) will start at 5.30 p.m. when pilgrimages leave St Publius church in Floriana and St Paul Shipwrecked church in Valletta. They will converge at St John Square where a Pontifical Mass will be celebrated at 7 p.m., after which the pilgrimage with the two statues will continue along Republic Street to City Gate before returning to their respective churches.