/library/oar/handle/123456789/94930 2026-05-27T04:25:43Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/144575 Title: Malta and the Holy See : history, diplomacy, and a shared institutional trajectory Abstract: The relationship between Malta and the Holy See is the result of a long historical process shaped by geography, faith, and political change. Rooted in the island’s early Christian memory and consolidated through centuries of ecclesiastical and civil interaction, this relationship entered a decisive new phase in the mid-twentieth century with Malta’s transition to statehood and the subsequent establishment of formal diplomatic relations. The commemorations marking the sixtieth anniversary of these relations offer an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of a distinctive model of Church–State engagement within a modern democratic framework. [excerpt] Description: Pontifical Mass in Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Malta and the Holy See Co-Cathedral of Saint John, Valletta Presided over by His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State Votive Mass of the Shipwreck of Saint Paul, document attached. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/144574 Title: Peter in the island of Paul : milestones in the history of relations between Malta and the Holy See [Book launch presentation] Abstract: Peter in the Island of Paul is conceived as a commemorative volume in the fullest sense of the word: not merely as a work that recalls the past, but as one that gathers memory, identity, and vocation into a coherent historical and theological narrative - a documented reflection on the history of the Church in Malta through the lens of Papal solicitude. It celebrates a relationship that is as ancient as Christianity in these Islands itself and as contemporary as the living presence of the Holy See in the life of the Maltese Church and State. At its heart lies a simple yet profound intuition: Malta's Christian identity has been forged at the intersection of two apostolic trajectories-the Pauline memory of mission, hospitality, and witness, sustained by the Petrine ministry of unity, governance, and confirmation in faith. [excerpt] 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/142550 Title: Santa Marija ta’ Doni : restoring a hidden jewel in Rabat’s heart Abstract: Throughout the bi-millennial history of Christianity, the faithful have always venerated the Blessed Virgin Mary as God’s most precious gift to his people: the humble Mother of the Faithful People of God, in whose womb the eternal son took flesh and through whose “yes” the door of salvation was opened to all. The Church’s most recent teaching has reminded us that Mary is not a rival to Christ, still less a second redeemer, but the most perfect expression of what Christ’s grace can accomplish in a human life: the first of the redeemed, the first disciple and Our Mother in the order of grace. [extract]. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/142502 Title: The Jesuits’ mission in hospitaller Malta : confronting spiritual, financial and political challenges in the Mediterranean frontier (17th–18th century) Authors: Doublet, Nicholas Joseph Abstract: Perched at the heart of the Mediterranean, Hospitaller Malta was both fortress and threshold: a bastion of Catholic Europe against the Ottoman world, yet also a crossroads of cultures where corsairs, merchants, enslaved Muslims, Jews, and Protestant sympathisers mingled in the bustling harbour towns. In this liminal space – what exasperated Jesuits, arguing for the financial subsistence, described as a «horrido scoglio» and a mission «in esiglio per amore del Signore»1 – the Catholic Church confronted challenges that went far beyond the island’s modest size. Clergy often lacked proper formation, the laity remained vulnerable to superstition, and competing jurisdictions between the bishop and the Grand Master frequently divided the Hospitaller state. It was into this contested frontier, poised between the pressures of reform and the threat of Islam, that the Society of Jesus entered in 1592. The foundation of the Collegium Melitense (Fig. 1) was not simply another act of institutional expansion by a particular religious congregation, but a decisive experiment in adapting Tridentine reform to one of the most exposed peripheries of Christendom.. [excerpt] 2025-05-01T00:00:00Z