Lawyers in Malta are as ‘respectable’ as they are loud, and, as respectable people go, there wasn’t a single homosexual lawyer with the courage to come out publicly. Indeed, not even a professional homosexual man or woman
Reminiscent of the fear of God inspired by the Inquisition; the Maltese Church attempted to manoeuvre the political scene in its favour. So the Labour executive and supporters became accustomed, but never immune to being accused of doing the devil’s work by members of their own community.
The curia was convinced that Mintoff’s socialism was a Trojan horse for communism. At the apex of the cold war the extreme sense of paranoia had found its breeding ground amongst Malta’s most conservative echelons. Clergymen, Azzjoni Kattolika and MUSEUM had mobilised women and children, some of whom were carrying banners and sticks. After every meeting women known as tal-Parfum took to the streets to disinfect the area where the labourites had convened.