There was once a Maltese politician who made it his life mission to separate the State from the church, but this was way before the 20th century.
Some 200 years ago, Nicolò Muscat, who acted as an adviser to the Grandmaster, or, in contemporary terms, was Advocate General, put up a fight with not one, but two Church representatives: the Inquisitor and the Bishop.
Back then he had quite a reputation, with the Pope’s Foreign Affairs Minister calling him ‘nemico del Papa’ (an enemy of the Pope) and being criticised for daring to mention civil marriage – something that was only introduced in Malta in 1975.
Still, Dr Muscat seems to have been practically forgotten following his death. But this is set to change with the launch of fresh research on this first Maltese who succeeded in separating the State and the Church – if only briefly.
The book, called Church-State relations in late-eighteenth-century Malta, written by Frans Ciappara and will be launched on September 14.
Dr Muscat, a lawyer by profession who identified as Catholic, was adamant that the Church should only intervene in spiritual matters.
According to Prof. Ciappara, who got to know him well posthumously, said Dr…
