Angele Deguara

This paper explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) Catholics deal with the intra-personal conflict that emerges from the incongurence between their faith and their sexuality. When they start experiencing sexual desires for persons of the same sex, their inner state of being is shattered as they are engulfed with feelings
of guilt, fear, anger, doubt and anxiety. They have to deal with their apparently irreconcilable sexuality and faith as they feel judged by God and by his Church. The LGBT Catholics in my study are spiritually profound, introspective, faithful beings. Yet they are not afraid to engage with the Church’s teachings to develop their own individual morality. Drawing upon the Catholic tradition itself, they seek to develop an alternative, LGBT-affirming moral hermeneutic, a process aided by
therapy, reflection, prayer, priestly advice and other techniques which enable them not only to find themselves but to relocate themselves within Catholicism. Through what Foucault calls “practices of the self” such as self-reflection, self-knowledge and self-examination, individuals engage with the established and prescribed moral code
in a process of “moral subjectivation”. Such processes enable them to reconstruct their fragmented self and to ‘reclaim’ their rightful place in religious texts which was denied them through heteronormative theological interpretations.

In 2011 Malta became practically the last country in Europe to introduce divorce legislation. Underlying the late arrival of this almost universal civil right is the hegemonic power which the Catholic Church has enjoyed for centuries but which has recently been showing signs of weakness. During the divorce campaign, the Church played an active role and was clearly the guiding force behind the No movement. The divorce issue received extensive news coverage in both local and international media where Malta was presented as the last bastion of Catholic morality in Europe even though it was showing clear signs of cracks in its foundations. As in other Western societies, the Church in Malta has traditionally set the standards of morality and expected the State to observe them. This paper analyses the role of the Church in its quest to preserve its privileged position as guardian of morality. Using the divorce debate as a case study, it examines why individuals are becoming less inclined to be guided by religious teachings particularly in matters of sex and relationships even if the majority still consider themselves Catholic. Through an analysis of the content of published communication used during the campaign particularly by the Church and by movements claiming to be affiliated to it or inspired by Catholic doctrine, the paper provides a framework for understanding the interplay between Church, state and society within the wider social, political and historical context within which these discourses were produced and disseminated. The paper attempts to interpret sociologically why the plausibility structures of the Church are being contested in a traditionally Catholic island community. Methodology Most of the data related to events leading to the divorce referendum and to the campaign itself such as data pertaining to political decisions as well as actions, events, statements, messages, quotes by the major protagonists especially the Church and the anti-divorce movement were derived from local media reports particularly those reported in online versions of the Times of Malta, Malta Today and the Malta Independent, three independent local newspapers. Furthermore, the website of the Archdiocese of Malta also provided a wealth of information in terms of speeches, pastoral letters, press releases, homilies, publications and messages of the Church in relation to the divorce issue.

Disclosing one’s sexual orientation or incongruent gender identity to others is often an ordeal which one would rather avoid, especially if one is brought up as Catholic. Telling  others about such matters is not done in a vacuum but is embedded within a social and a moral context. Dreading the imagined reactions of others, LGBT Catholics often delay revealing their ‘secret’, suffering in silence, praying that they will change, and fearing the consequences if they do not.

This study is based on two years of fieldwork with LGBT Catholics in Malta and, to a lesser extent, in Palermo conducted during 2014 and 2015. It describes the experiences of having to reveal one’s ‘secret’, the tactics used to minimise conflict and how individuals seek to negotiate the approval and blessing of significant others.

The recent social and legal changes in Malta, are likely to have a positive impact on the ‘coming out’ experiences of LGBT Catholics.  However my informants grew up in a social milieu where such changes were still a dream. Challenging the norms of heterosexuality and disregarding the morality structures of the Church had their consequences.

The study explores the ambivalent relationship of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans
(LGBT) Catholics within the Roman Catholic Church whose teachings on sexuality are
a major source of conflict and distress. It analyses the experiences of LGBT believers
with a strong attachment to the Church in Malta and, to a lesser extent in Palermo,
who now feel marginalised by the Church because of their sexual relationships. They
are critical of the Church and feel alienated from it as an institution. As their lifestyle
departs from Catholic teachings, they reconstruct their sexual morality which, however,
is still inspired by Catholic values. Despite their negative feelings towards it, LGBT
Catholics are reluctant to sever their ties completely from the Church, preferring instead
to have remained within its fold and to be embraced by it. Study participants
may be classified into three overlapping categories in terms of how they relate to the
Church, depending on their level of alienation. Assimilators feel at peace with the
Church and remain loyal even as they criticise it. Deserters leave the Church, some
rather reluctantly, as they feel rejected and judged. Affiliators join LGBT faith-based
groups searching for what they did not find within the Church community.

This study is about the conflict that may arise from contradictions between one’s beliefs and one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity.  It explores the lived experiences of LGBT Catholics as they struggle with the dilemmas arising from their non-conformity to Catholic sexual morality in contemporary society. The conflict that may arise from these contradictions is multifaceted and complex. It tends to leave its toll on the psychological and emotional wellbeing of LGBT people of faith. It may also have an impact on their social interaction patterns, their relationships and their religious participation. There are those who eventually manage to embrace both the sexual and spiritual aspects of their identity rather than reluctantly having to give up one of them. However, not everyone manages to do this successfully.

The chapter discusses poverty in contemporary society particularly in Malta within the context of the EU. It discusses the realities faced by different categories of people who are more likely to be victims of poverty such as the unemployed, children and the elderly, lone parents and immigrants.

Life on the Line is based on an ethnographic investigation of women working in a German-owned clothing factory in Malta in the mid 1990s.  It explores life in the factory, the production line, hierarchical systems and occupational segregation. It aims to combine the sociology of work and the labour process with gender issues in a local manufacturing concern set in a marginal position within global capitalist world.

The recent sociology reader, Sociology of the Maltese Islands, edited by Michael Briguglio and Maria Brown will serve to open the window a little wider on how our society has been unfolding over the years and what the people of the Maltese islands have been up to since we last looked. Actually this is not the first publication of its kind in recent decades, reflecting heightened interest in and opportunities for social investigation which also served to address the dearth of systematic knowledge about our immediate social world which existed in the past and which still inevitably exists especially in certain areas. In this volume, the contributors (who I am happy to note come from different disciplines which may share some common questions with sociology) engage with various issues ranging from stages in the lifecourse and demographic trends to politics, consumption patterns, art, media, tourism, environmental concerns, race and ethnicity, social class, poverty, deviance and social control, education and development. Traditional institutions such as religion and the family are also put under the scrutinity of the sociological microscope and evaluated critically. We have a collage of writings which engage with both the modern and the postmodern, within both a historical and a contemporary context. The pieces in the Reader are generally factual-argumentative in nature and style rather than theoretical, presenting statistical or other forms of research evidence, noting and commenting on social changes and at times hinting at where we are heading. Sociologists are often accused of confirming the obvious, of telling us what we already know in more elaborate and less accessible language. And I will not deny that at times I am also tempted to admit this. However, when one thinks of the tools and the skills that sociology equips us with to enable us to engage with the social world, I would have to challenge such claims. At the risk of sounding like an introductory sociology textbook I still have to note that sociological research and theory continue to provide us with the vocabulary, with the concepts to help us understand the what, the why and the how. It is true that sociology is concerned with issues and processes which are often familiar and which we may experience directly but the sociological imagination knows no bounds. Sociological inquiry involves asking interesting and intelligent questions about anything remotely related to the social world. This may also involve the mundane, the taken for granted, the apparently trivial and inconsequential or even stupid. But that is what the sociological imagination is all about. It enables us to see things from different perspectives and which may not have been so evident at face value. It provides us with answers which may challenge the status quo and questions taken for granted assumptions. Sociological knowledge fills the blanks and may put an end to certain controversies even if at the same time it may create more controversies, debates, questions, curiosities, challenges and hypotheses. We conduct sociological research for a number of reasons. We may want to obtain factual information about the social world and more pertinently to generate theoretical explanations and concepts. Sometimes we do research because we do not really have a choice especially when we are still undergraduates. Some studies are carried out simply because there are funds which need to be

This study explores secularisation in a traditionally Catholic community through
the analysis of intimate relationships which fall outside Catholic morality. It gives an
indication of how individuals in contemporary society perceive Church teachings on
sexuality in terms of the relationship choices they make. The research draws upon 2 years
of fieldwork carried out with Drachma LGBTI, a space where lesbian, gay, bisexual,
trans, and intersex (LGBTI) people of faith may explore and deepen their spirituality.
I also conducted 35 in-depth interviews with LGBT and non-LGBT individuals whose
lifestyle runs counter to official Church teachings on sexuality, despite their Catholic
faith that is, who are in a same-sex relationship or else divorced, cohabiting or in a civil
marriage. The study revealed that while informants may disregard Church teachings
on matters of sexuality, their reconstructed sexual morality is still embedded within a
Catholic framework

The study explores whether and how Catholic morality still plays a role in the lives of Catholics in Malta who are in sexual relationships which do not conform to the moral guidelines of the Catholic Church—more specifically divorced or separated and cohabiting or remarried men and women, and how they experience the conflict that may arise from the incongruence between their beliefs and their lifestyle choices. The research suggests that while Catholics who are engaged in such relationships may experience some guilt because of living ‘in sin’, they are more tormented by shame rather than by guilt, as they experience a sense of judgement and exclusion from the religious community which draws its sexual morality from Catholic teaching. Non-conforming Catholics tend to redefine their notion of sin in a way which departs from official Church teaching. In reconstructing their sexual morality, they redeem themselves of any wrongdoing in the eyes of God. Yet, while they manage to neutralise their guilt, their perceived condemnation and rejection by the Church is a source of distress and conflict. Conflict with the Church is partly driven by their perceived loss of status, particularly in their parish community. The Church influences the morality of the social community and disturbs their previous embeddedness within a social network where they now feel stigmatised. At the same time they romanticise Church morality and would have preferred to have continued conforming to its expectations and to have remained part of its core.

Keywords Catholic Church · Sexual morality · Shame · Malta · Separated · Relationships

This article is about how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) Catholics imagine God and how images of God change in parallel with their self-image. The study is based on qualitative research with LGBT Catholics, most of whom are members of Drachma LGBTI in Malta or Ali d’Aquila in Palermo, Sicily. LGBT Catholics’ image of God changes as they struggle to reconcile their religious and sexual identities and as they go through a process of “conversion” from deviants and sinners to loved children of God. One study participant compares his faith in God to peeling an onion: “With every layer one peels off, one destroys false images of God.” Most study participants have moved away from the image of God as a bearded old man and father of creation and moved more toward a conception of God as love once identity conflicts are resolved.

KEYWORDS: Catholic, God, identity conflict, images, LGBT, Malta, Palermo

This article is about how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) Catholics imagine God and how images of God change in parallel with their self-image. The study is based on qualitative research with LGBT Catholics, most of whom are members of Drachma LGBTI in Malta or Ali d’Aquila in Palermo, Sicily. LGBT Catholics’ image of God changes as they struggle to reconcile their religious and sexual identities and as they go through a process of “conversion” from deviants and sinners to loved children of God. One study participant compares his faith in God to peeling an onion: “With every layer one peels off, one destroys false images of God.” Most study participants have moved away from the image of God as a bearded old man and father of creation and moved more toward a conception of God as love once identity conflicts are resolved.

This paper explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) Catholics deal with the intra-personal conflict that emerges from the incongurence between their faith and their sexuality. When they start experiencing sexual desires for persons of the same sex, their inner state of being is shattered as they are engulfed with feelings of guilt, fear, anger, doubt and anxiety. They have to deal with their apparently irreconcilable sexuality and faith as they feel judged by God and by his Church. The LGBT Catholics in my study are spiritually profound, introspective, faithful beings. Yet they are not afraid to engage with the Church’s teachings to develop their own individual morality. Drawing upon the Catholic tradition itself, they seek to develop an alternative, LGBT-affirming moral hermeneutic, a process aided by therapy, reflection, prayer, priestly advice and other techniques which enable them not only to find themselves but to relocate themselves within Catholicism. Through what...

This paper explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) Catholics deal with the intra-personal conflict that emerges from the incongurence between their faith and their sexuality. When they start experiencing sexual desires for persons of the same sex, their inner state of being is shattered as they are engulfed with feelings of guilt, fear, anger, doubt and anxiety. They have to deal with their apparently irreconcilable sexuality and faith as they feel judged by God and by his Church. The LGBT Catholics in my study are spiritually profound, introspective, faithful beings. Yet they are not afraid to engage with the Church’s teachings to develop their own individual morality. Drawing upon the Catholic tradition itself, they seek to develop an alternative, LGBT-affirming moral heremeutic, a process aided by therapy, reflection, prayer, priestly advice and other techniques which enable them not only to find themselves but to relocate themselves within Catholicism. Through what ...

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, millions of people in Europe are still struggling with poverty. This despite the fact that Europe is a relatively economically well-off region. Taking a conventional relative measure of poverty, calculated in terms of income below 60% of the national median, it is estimated that about 16% or 75 million people in the European Union can be termed poor (European Commission, 2007). This figure however masks the considerable variation noted in different EU countries with the share of the population living on a low income ranging from less than 11% in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg to around 20 or 21% in Slovakia, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Greece (European Commission, 2007; European Communities, 2007a). In Malta, the percentage of people who in 2005 fell below the poverty line is quite close to the EU average. According to the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) carried out by the National...

Life on the Line is based on an ethnographic investigation of women working in a German-owned clothing factory in Malta in the mid 1990s. It explores life in the factory, the production line, hierarchical systems and occupational segregation. It aims to combine the sociology of work and the labour process with gender issues in a local manufacturing concern set in a marginal position within global capitalist world.

The study explores whether and how Catholic morality still plays a role in the lives of Catholics in Malta who are in sexual relationships which do not conform to the moral guidelines of the Catholic Church—more specifically divorced or separated and cohabiting or remarried men and women, and how they experience the conflict that may arise from the incongruence between their beliefs and their lifestyle choices. The research suggests that while Catholics who are engaged in such relationships may experience some guilt because of living ‘in sin’, they are more tormented by shame rather than by guilt, as they experience a sense of judgement and exclusion from the religious community which draws its sexual morality from Catholic teaching. Non-conforming Catholics tend to redefine their notion of sin in a way which departs from official Church teaching. In reconstructing their sexual morality, they redeem themselves of any wrongdoing in the eyes of God. Yet, while they manage to neutralise their guilt, their perceived condemnation and rejection by the Church is a source of distress and conflict. Conflict with the Church is partly driven by their perceived loss of status, particularly in their parish community. The Church influences the morality of the social community and disturbs their previous embeddedness within a social network where they now feel stigmatised. At the same time they romanticise Church morality and would have preferred to have continued conforming to its expectations and to have remained part of its core. Keywords Catholic Church · Sexual morality · Shame · Malta · Separated · Relationships

This study explores secularisation in a traditionally Catholic community through the analysis of intimate relationships which fall outside Catholic morality. It gives an indication of how individuals in contemporary society perceive Church teaching on sexuality in terms of the relationship choices they make. The research draws upon two years of fieldwork carried out with Drachma LGBTI which provides a space where lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people of faith may explore and deepen their spirituality. Thirty-five in-depth interviews were also conducted with LGBT and non-LGBT individuals whose lifestyle runs counter to official Church teaching on sexuality despite their Catholic faith i.e. who are in a same-sex relationship or else divorced, cohabiting or in a civil marriage. The study revealed that while informants may disregard Church teaching on matters of sexuality, their reconstructed sexual morality is still embedded within a Catholic framework even as they opt for contemporary lifestyles. While the island may have become a more secular, modern society, Malta's modernity remains persistently Catholic. Maltese believers living at the edges of the Church still yearn to form part of the Catholic community despite the conflicts they experience. Modern Malta is perhaps less 'enchanted' than it was a few decades ago, but the sacred still permeates everyday life including sexual intimacy.