Anyone watching the news on TV last Thursday evening may be forgiven in thinking that Malta is, like some of the imperial German electorates of yesteryear, ruled by a Prince Archbishop and an oligarchy of prelates.The events of last week were the thanksgiving Mass by outgoing Archbishop Mgr Joseph Mercieca and the Prime Minister's official visit to Pope Benedict. The commentaries that accompanied both events prove how seriously we Maltese not only accept but embrace the Catholic religion. That is not a bad thing; far from it.
Catholicism is an integral part of our lives and, like it or hate it, we are as unlikely to escape it as much as looking out of a window anywhere in Malta, Gozo or Comino and not seeing a cupola, steeple, chapel or niche somewhere in the landscape. Vestiges of a deeply traditional Catholicism are everywhere. All around us the baroque vernacular has been translated into symbols of faith. If only these outward signs were true reflections of the real state of moral Malta.
All too often, lay Maltese Catholicism forgets that it is also Christian and that the greatest attribute of a true follower of Christ is forgiveness. The ability to forgive and forget, coupled with another great gift, compassion, is all too often overlooked. We are many times unbending and hieratic in our attitudes as long as it does not affect us personally or our families.
Therefore, once we are not ourselves experiencing a rocky marriage, and our daughter is not married to a drunk who beats her black and blue and whose children live in sheer terror, and our sister is not married to a Lothario and our aunt to a gambler who has siphoned away his own money, his wife's and his children's and anyone else unfortunate enough to have anything to do with him, but all are comfortable and secure, it is all very well to throw up our hands in utter horror and proclaim from the rooftops that divorce is a law that should never be introduced in Malta, for in Malta adultery does not exist and nor does alcoholism, gambling, sadism and all the ills that can smash any marriage to smithereens.
No, those things happen in other countries where prime and other ministers do not go off to pay well-publicised visits to the Pope and where the Leader of the Opposition is in the front row during Mgr Mercieca's last official Mass. Those things only happen in countries where divorce laws have eroded the foundations of society, the family unit. Pull the other one!
Those people who still believe that Malta is a sort of Loth Lorien, encircled by an impenetrable girdle of magic, must live in cuckoo land. Their lives must be so idyllic that they are blissfully of the firm opinion that the laws, which for many decades regularised the unions and disunions of married couples in other countries, Ireland included, are of no relevance to us in Malta for should we have the temerity to "let them in by the back door" they will corrupt us to the extent that every other person will want to avail themselves of such laws, thereby breaking our ever so upright and virtuous society forever. Are we in fact so virtuous? Divorce laws or not, people in Malta are either simply not keen on getting married or, if they happen to be, are separating anyway.
Those people who still believe that Malta is a sort of Loth Lorien, encircled by an impenetrable girdle of magic, must live in cuckoo land. Their lives must be so idyllic that they are blissfully of the firm opinion that the laws, which for many decades regularised the unions and disunions of married couples in other countries, Ireland included, are of no relevance to us in Malta for should we have the temerity to "let them in by the back door" they will corrupt us to the extent that every other person will want to avail themselves of such laws, thereby breaking our ever so upright and virtuous society forever. Are we in fact so virtuous? Divorce laws or not, people in Malta are either simply not keen on getting married or, if they happen to be, are separating anyway.
For years and years an ever-increasing amount of children have been to-ing and fro-ing from one parent to the other quite happily or unhappily as the case may be, but it's a fact that slaps one in the face like a wet lampuka. At least those with a brain and, more importantly, the wherewithal to do so, do so. It is for the ones who cannot cope with their situations, the ones who are helpless and impecunious broken victims of mental and physical cruelty and abuse that need those very divorce laws for their own protection and for their children's.
The present opposition to divorce laws ever being introduced in Malta is, strangely enough, not being orchestrated by the Catholic Church itself but its laity and, predictably, now the ANR.
As in the case of all the hoo-hah about the Da Vinci Code, the Church is being unsurprisingly reticent about the whole issue. The Church, after all, has had its own rules and regulations about divorce for centuries and has, despite the dogmatical "let no man put asunder" dictum, made some exceptions!
As in the case of all the hoo-hah about the Da Vinci Code, the Church is being unsurprisingly reticent about the whole issue. The Church, after all, has had its own rules and regulations about divorce for centuries and has, despite the dogmatical "let no man put asunder" dictum, made some exceptions!
Historically too, many a king and queen were "divorced" for dynastic reasons alone. Refusing a divorce to Henry VIII for no other reason other than Queen Katharine being Charles V's aunt, cost Clement VII the permanent loss of England from the Catholic fold. Only a generation later another Pope granted a divorce to the recently-converted Henry IV of France of "Paris is worth a Mass" fame and Marguerite de Valois!
"Divorce" by way of annulment is a privilege of the Catholic Church to administer and Malta and his wife are quite happy to leave it that way till they are affected themselves.
Elections are looming ever closer and both major parties know they cannot afford to commit political suicide by introducing any sort of divorce laws. So we are stuck in an everlasting hiatus for as long as it takes. As long as our politicians lead good virtuous lives within familiar and comfortable "ideal" family units with supportive wives or husbands, token three or four children and who stop to talk to their constituents after Sunday Mass then everything is hunky-dory. Those politicians who are not within this charmed circle, with one or two exceptions, live on the fringe. I would expect those who do to do something positive to regularise what is tantamount to a social injustice.
Divorce in itself is the very sad and tragic culmination of a nightmarish union that involves not only the couple concerned but all around them. Of course we don't want it. But, with that sort of reasoning, it is like not having any laws to regulate any other social evil that exists. It is indeed a good thing that, in this day and age, divorce is something out in the open; something that can be discussed openly without causing scandal as it was to people of my mother's generation who still firmly believe in Mrs Patrick Campbell's dictum. Divorce today is a fundamental human right that has been denied to Malta and will continue to be as long as we believe ourselves to be "different".
So, as we all get revved up to greet our new Archbishop in a week's time, there will be those who will expect him to take a more pragmatic approach to the very real social imbalances and hypocrisies that surround us and there will also be those who will expect Archbishop Mgr Paul Cremona to maintain the status quo.
This smiling prelate, who is a product of an intellectual but notoriously reactionary order nicknamed the Dogs of God, has to tread a fine line. However his work, it appears, has already been cut out for him as Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has just extended a formal invitation to the Pope to visit us, a visit the faithful would wish to coincide with the canonisation of the Blessed Dun Gorg Preca.
After almost 2,000 years of Catholicism we are at last to have our first Maltese saint unless you count St Publius, but he wasn't Maltese was he? Curiously late in the day for a country that is so devout and conservative that it still vociferously opposes divorce, would you not agree?