Malta’s Faith-Filled Sunday: Pope’s Climate Call, Record Charity Haul and Gozo’s First All-Female Band Ignite September Festa

Feast of St Matthew, Pope’s Climate Plea and a New Nadur Band: How Sunday’s Religious Buzz is Re-wiring Malta

Sliema’s 6 a.m. fishermen swear the sea was glass-calm on 21 September 2025, the kind of stillness locals call “ħarsa ta’ qaddis” – a saint’s own gaze. By 7 a.m. the same harbour was humming with brass bands and the smell of ħobż biż-żejt, proof that in Malta the sacred and the social rarely stay apart for long. Sunday’s nationwide triple-header – the Feast of St Matthew in Rabat, a papal video-link on climate change beamed into every parish hall, and the surprise launch of Nadur’s first all-female liturgical band – gave islanders plenty to chew on, spiritually and politically.

Rabat takes the liturgical crown every 21 September. Inside the baroque basilica, Archbishop Charles Scicluna told a packed nave that “the tax-collector-turned-evangelist reminds us conversion is never a private affair; it re-draws the whole map of the village.” The quote instantly trended on Maltese Twitter, transposed over photos of the new €2.3 million piazza redesign that replaced parking with citrus trees. “Less cars, more charity,” joked one Żebbuġ pensioner, handing €20 to the collection bucket for Dar tal-Providenza. By noon the Franciscan sisters running the charity kiosk had counted €47,500 – a single-day record they attribute to Scicluna’s sound-bite going viral.

Across the island in Gozo, teenagers were still replaying Pope Francis’ five-minute climate clip, screened simultaneously at 10.15 a.m. in 75 parish centres. Speaking from the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, the Pope singled out Malta’s “blue economy” fishermen as custodians of “our common Mediterranean garden” and urged them to lead Europe in ditching single-use plastics by 2027. The message struck a nerve: earlier this month the Environment & Resources Authority revealed micro-plastics were found in 83 % of Lampuki stomachs sampled off Gozo. “When the Pope quotes your own grandmother’s saying – ‘il-baħar jiftaħ u jisqoti’ – you listen,” said 19-year-old Kimberlyn Borg, who will skipper her family’s luzzu full-time next season. Before sunset, the Gozo Fishing Cooperative had drafted a voluntary pledge to phase out styrofoam crates, a move expected to ripple through wholesale markets in Valletta’s Is-Suq tal-Belt.

But the loudest cheers arguably erupted in Nadur, where Bishop Anton Teuma presented Stella Maris, the island’s first all-female liturgical brass ensemble. Dressed in turquoise sashes embroidered with the Gozitan cross, the 22 musicians – ages 14 to 66 – blasted a jazz-tinged version of the Ave Maria that sent goose-bumps through the crowd. “We’re not here to break stained-glass ceilings; we’re here to polish them,” quipped drum-major Rebecca Vella, 27, a science teacher by weekday. Her quip mirrored a broader shift: Church statistics released Friday show women now head 38 % of parish pastoral councils, up from 9 % in 2005. The band’s debut also carries economic heft. Nadur mayor Edward Said expects the group to headline 15 village festas next summer, injecting an estimated €180,000 into Gozo’s shoulder-season tourism. Hotels are already marketing “Stella Maris packages” combining band processions with astro-tourism nights in the nearby Ġgantija darkness park.

Back in Rabat as fireworks painted the sky cobalt and gold, the basilica bells rang out a verse from Matthew freshly minted in Maltese rhyme: “Fejn qalbek, hemm l-ġid tiegħek” – “Where your heart is, there is your treasure.” Whether hearts were set on plastic-free seas, inclusive church bands, or simply nanna’s imqaret, Maltese society spent 21 September proving that scripture here is less dusty parchment than living Facebook feed, constantly updated, shared and – if the €47,500 haul is any clue – heartily liked.