The head of the church in Gozo has urged members of the clergy not to worry about dwindling numbers of churchgoers and instead focus on their own spiritual wellbeing.  

In a new year’s message on Saturday, January 8, Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma told members of the sister island’s clergy that they need not focus on the number of empty pews in their congregations.  

“For us priests, the most important thing is not our administrative capability, it is not our ability to form groups or to gather large numbers of people, but above all, it is work on our own personal integration and identification with Christ,” his message reads.  

“This means that our anxiety should not be because people are not coming to church but instead we should focus on our own experience of church and mass, not worrying that people are no longer coming for meetings and activities but instead focusing on mediating the word of God, not that people are no longer coming for confession, but that we have a rhythm of our confessions.”

The message was given virtually to priests and members of the Gozitan clergy, both on the island and abroad.  

In 2019 a census had projected that church attendance on the Maltese mainland will decline steadily over the coming years until it sinks to only 10 per cent of Malta’s Catholic population by 2040. 

Soon afterwards the Curia announced it will be looking at introducing a pastoral plan that includes more assistance to the most vulnerable in society in an attempt to address Mass attendance problems.  

That census - as well as the pastoral plan that followed it - did not include the Gozitan diocese.