The marriage scene in Malta has been changing slowly but steadily in the last 30 years. Two typical changes are the rise in the number of civil marriages and the increase in the number of people opting for cohabitation. Though we are conscious of all this, when somebody publishes figures that make us face reality, we tend to be surprised.

This was our reaction after reading the report by Cynthia Busuttil published in The Sunday Times last week. She was reporting on the seminar held by the Church's Catholic Enquiry Centre.

The writing is on the wall. There were 98 civil marriages between Maltese people last year, despite the fact that the total number of marriages went down. Civil marriages between Maltese and foreigners went up to 204 last year.

This means that 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. When Maltese women marry foreigners, they are most likely to be Arabs - in fact they were the majority. Only a third were Europeans. Maltese men prefer Russians and British women.

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

A Catholic marriage is increasingly becoming a matter of choice; and this in itself is something positive. On the other hand, the increase in civil marriages will mean a drop in Catholic marriages. This implies that the Catholic religion is becoming less important to more and more people. On the other hand, a rise civil marriages could also indicate that most people in Malta still believe in marriage, whether church or civil.

Fr Paul Galea, the keynote speaker during the seminar, was right to note that, in essence, marriages were the same, whether contracted in a registry or in church. He was reported to have said that a civil marriage was already a step forward, considering the number of couples who are instead opting to 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," this paper reported him as saying.

He was also correct to note that 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.

Because of this, we believe it is very important that some lines, goalposts or rules are also set by society for cohabiting couples. Such a union involves duties which one should not be able to shed as if none existed. The present situation is causing injustices and pain unnecessarily.

The state should shoulder its responsibility in this matter. The Nationalist Party had promised to address this situation before the 1996 general election. Eleven years have passed since then but the matter has not been addressed. Government should pluck up courage, face the situation and do something about it.

Archbishop Cremona's comments, as reported in The Sunday Times, are interesting indeed. He pointed out that the local Church had a major task ahead - dealing with the Ecclesiastical Tribunal. Without elaborating further, he said this could even be the reason behind the rise in civil marriages.

These tribunals have been the subject of constant debate in many Church fora at least for a decade. Not enough has been done. It is being said that the Archbishop will soon take concrete steps to try and improve the situation. The sooner these steps are taken, the better for everyone.

We hope that these steps will succeed in diminishing the hardships that many married couples are enduring unnecessarily.