Cana to boost research, education on marriage

An "observatory of the family" is to be set up within the Cana Movement in Floriana to continue strengthening its mission to defend marriage.

The newly appointed director, Fr Joseph Mizzi, 35, from Zebbug, said the observatory was part of his vision and in line with the Movement's mission to be "true promoters of education on marriage".

The bureau would be run by qualified professionals and involve a team of consultants', Fr Mizzi said. It would be headed by a person responsible for research and the collecting of data related to marriage, including "what is happing in the Maltese and European Parliaments, the United Nations and all over the world as regards the family and everything related to it".

But its aim does not stop there. "We would not just be filing this data. That is not our role. Our purpose is to study it, write articles, publish works and organise meetings and forums to get the Movement out there," Fr Mizzi said.

"We want to engage civil society, the government and all people of good will in this dialogue to promote the family in view of the fact that many people do not have a clue of what marriage and a family are all about."

The idea would be to supply NGOs, the Church and the state with recent and professional data, which would be of help to them all.

Statistics could be quite shocking at first glance, so they needed to be studied and interpreted well, Fr Mizzi continued, highlighting the role of the observatory.

It would be studying why, for example, some people were choosing to get married civilly, or whether they were separating for the wrong reasons, or getting back together after separation - "to be able to talk in a more convincing way in society".

The idea is to take a two-way "pliers" approach - on the one hand tackling the matter from the academic, professional point of view, and on the other helping the grassroots.

Fr Mizzi has been involved in the Cana Movement since he was ordained priest in 1997. He has replaced Fr Louis Camilleri, having been assistant director until now.

Apart from being committed to setting up the observatory after summer, he plans to strengthen by doubling to 40 the Movement's team of counselors, who will be trained in family therapy.

The idea is to be able to cater for cases referred to Cana from the Family Court, the Ecclesiastical Tribunal and those who simply knock on its door.