Cohabitation 'more worrying than divorce'

The number of civil marriages between Maltese partners has shot up in the past 30 years, something that is worrying the Church's Catholic Enquiry Centre.

But psychologist Fr Paul Galea yesterday argued that, in essence, marriages were the same, whether civil or canonised.

He stressed that a civil marriage was already a step forward considering the number of couples who are instead opting to just live together.

"I am more worried about cohabitation than divorce. Asking for a divorce means that the person still believes in marriage. But cohabitation is the biggest insult to marriage," he said.

Speaking during a seminar discussing civil marriages, Fr Galea said the challenges of cohabitation were even more difficult than those of marriage, comparing cohabitation to playing football in a pitch without any lines, goalposts or rules.

When a member of the public argued that the authorities would do well to legislate rights for cohabiting couples, Fr Galea said this would be tantamount to creating a parallel marriage.

Couples should not get married just because it is the culturally acceptable thing to do, Archbishop Paul Cremona said. Instead, he emphasised, marriage should be the result of a couple's conscious decision.

He also pointed out that the local church had a big task ahead of it - dealing with the Ecclesiastical Tribunal. Without elaborating further, he said this could even be the reason behind the increase in civil marriages.

The seminar also discussed marriages between Maltese and foreigners, which is clearly a concern for the Catholic Enquiry Centre. A centre member said that having foreign mothers might have an effect on the Maltese lifestyle, adding that this was why the centre organised preparatory courses for Maltese who are marrying foreigners.

But Fr Galea believes that while mixed marriages bring about increased challenges, these were not impossible to surmount, and might also be positive.

"They break down our insularity, which is still prevalent, especially in the small villages. Malta is no longer an island, but a crossroads where many people meet."

Fr Galea stressed that the church should not try to convert all those who marry Maltese people, but instead should identify other values, like love, in them. After all, he said, human values were the basis for the Christian religion.

He argued that openness to change is a value in itself because it creates an opportunity for growth.

Civil marriages between Maltese people shot up from one in 1975 to 98 last year, despite the fact that the total number of marriages went down.

The number of civil marriages between a Maltese and a foreigner have also increased in three decades, from two in 1975 to 204 last year.

In 1975, church marriages made up almost 100 per cent of all marriages. However, more than 40 per cent of marriages taking place last year were civil, although only 15 per cent of marriages between Maltese did not take place in church.

Despite the fact that there are more young men than women, between August 2001 and last August there were slightly more Maltese women who married foreigners than men.

More than half of the foreign men who married Maltese women in the last six years were from Arab countries. More than a third were Europeans, with the vast majority of them British. On the other hand more than a quarter of foreign women who married Maltese men were Russians and another quarter were British, while a sixth of the foreign women were Asian.

The percentage of children born out of wedlock to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 went up from 68 per cent in 1993 to 95 per cent in 2005.

While only just over two per cent of babies born in 1993 were out of wedlock, these went up to 30 per cent last year.