The recent re-opening of the debate on divorce has spawned the usual arguments in favour of or against its legalisation. Many of these arguments have now been repeated ad nauseum. What we seem to have forgotten is a basic point and that is man's relationship to God. When God created man, he gave a "manual of instructions" as a universal law to all His children for all time. He didn't say that this law applies only to Catholics or that it has an expiry date. As far as He is concerned, His moral law is binding on all. What He did do was leave man free to accept it, or reject and face the consequences.

Those who are claiming that Catholics can still reject divorce while others should have the legal space to use it have forgotten that God did not make any distinction between Catholics and others. Those who, with the best of intentions, want to help those who are caught up in the painful net of marital problems, have forgotten that divorce is not the solution provided in God's law.

Those who contend that Church and State should be separated are perfectly right in their contention. Where Church and State are not separated you get serious abuse of discrimination, interference with human rights or outright persecution. But they have forgotten that even a secular state is still bound by God's universal moral law for the simple reason that God made no exceptions to it.

A look at the Book of Job gives us a glimpse of God's perspective on the matter. When Job thinks he has been hard done by, he opens a dialogue with God and asks Him a lot of questions. God listens but at the end He reserves His right to fire away some questions of His own. What emerges very clearly in this stirring climax is that God spells out in no uncertain terms the enormous differences between the pot and the potter. To Job's credit be it said that he accepts the fact that he has been put back in his place.

But post-modern man is too arrogant to do that. He thinks he knows better than God and can come up with some "new" solutions that had escaped God. So he fools around with moral relativism whereby all absolute of right and wrong cease to exist. He tells God that His 10 commandments have reached their sell-by date and should be dumped.

From then on it becomes easy for him to justify all kinds of moral aberrations despised by God. He doesn't see them as human frailty or human error. So he claims that people who break God's laws have rights too. In some countries these so-called rights have been legalised too. The only one who has no rights at all is God.

Humanity has reached this point following its own fallacies. In this connection it is worthwhile remembering that, within living memory, there were two bright lights shining in the darkness of this world. Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta were respected by all - not just Catholics - for their intelligence, sound principles, respect for human rights, love of life and respect for all. Never for one moment did they waiver in their obedience to God's law. Whether they were speaking to the United Nations, to government representatives or the poorest of the poor, they never diluted or watered down an iota of God's law. And the whole world applauded and loved them for it.

Because God has made each and every one of us in His image and in our heart of hearts we know what is right and what is wrong. As for me, I shall continue helping and supporting in any way I can whoever is suffering. But I cannot condone the legalisation of divorce, not because I am Catholic and others are not, not because I don't care about problems afflicting married couples. No. I cannot condone it because it goes against my conscience to break God's law simply because I presume to know better than Him. Pope Benedict XVI keeps harping on this thesis. Translated into practical terms, this means that any Maltese government that legalises divorce - or any other moral aberrations - will have to do without my vote.

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