In April 1968, a survey on Maltese university students' religious attitudes and behaviour was held by the Pastoral Research Services and the Association of Theology students.
Among other questions, they asked whether students would like to discuss sex with priests. Forty-four per cent said yes.
In April 2008, the collection of data was concluded for a survey entitled Religious Beliefs and Attitudes of Maltese University Students Revisited - 2009 held by the University Chaplaincy. The organisers did not feel the need to ask students whether they wanted to talk to priests about sex. The students were asked whether they actually had sexual intercourse during the past year. Forty-four per cent said yes.
Customs did change in 30 years!
I think the study clearly shows that University students consciously choose what they want to believe from what is officially presented by the Church. Although 91 per cent of respondents described themselves as Catholics, only a minority consider divorce (43 per cent), premarital sex (24 per cent) and artificial contraception (14.7 per cent) to be morally wrong.
It is interesting that while the majority of respondents approve of premarital cohabitation (73.5 per cent) and the legalisation of divorce (56.7 per cent), most do not want to choose either as their lifestyle. One sixth would consider opting for divorce and only five per cent would cohabit. This is positive.
The topics touched upon do not cover the whole gamut of Catholic morality. There were no questions about attitudes to the environment, social justice and refugees, for example. If such questions were asked, perhaps the survey would have found that the departure from Catholic teaching on sexual morality was balanced by a stronger social conscience.
The University students' answers on sexual morality would not have worried me so much were it not for four factors, two of which result from the study itself. The current study is a repeat of one done in 2005. The results show that figures are sliding downwards, and that what was felt to be wrong then is not similarly felt now. The trend is clear.
The second, and more worrying factor, is the slide in the level of belief in some of the basic dogmas of Catholicism. Today, fewer students believe in the Trinity, in Jesus as the Son of God, in the Incarnation, in the Holy Spirit, in heaven and hell, in Mary as the Mother of God and in the Church, to mention a few points. Belief in the Trinity fell 18 per cent, in the Incarnation by 24 per cent and in the sacraments by almost 23 per cent.
But one can find a silver lining even in this section. A total of 93.5 per cent of respondents believe in God - a decline of "just" 4.5 per cent over the 2005 figure. There is also a sharp increase in the number of those who say their religious practice is a matter of free choice.
The third factor is that if the same survey were to be conducted among other young people I suspect it would register the same trends. On the morality issues, I also suspect that University students' views would be similar to those of the population at large. The Church needs to find out whether this is true or not.
The fourth and most worrisome factor is the follow-up. There will be some 'noise' within the Church about this study but soon everyone will live happily ever after. This is what happened after the 2005 study was published, as well as after the partial results of the Mass census were issued.
On the contrary, the Church needs to strive hard to understand what is happening and adopt a strategy to address it.