Labour MP Marlene Pullicino has made a right about turn on divorce and believes it is now "about time" the discussion evolved into how best to craft a divorce Bill with enough safeguards to protect marriage.

"I have spoken to many people, including priests and theologians, and they exonerated me of my guilt because I realised that legislating for divorce does not mean I am going against my Catholic beliefs. By legislating, I am not telling people to go down a certain path. All I am doing is giving them the right to make their own decisions," she said yesterday, when contacted.

She said she had been grappling with this issue for the past two years because she was a fervent Catholic who happened to have a broken marriage with Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando - the same man now proposing a private member's Bill on divorce.

Two years ago she had told Pink Magazine she would never be able to vote in favour of divorce, primarily because of her Catholic convictions. But Dr Pullicino said she now believed "today's realities" had to be addressed through a well thoughtout divorce Bill.

She said she had started reconsidering her view on divorce when she was being attacked for her anti-divorce position.

"I used to wonder why people were taking it like that. I thought, how can anyone expect me to legislate for divorce if I am a Catholic?

"But then some people made me see things in a different light. I realised that as a representative of the people I could not represent only Catholics. It's something I already knew at the back of my mind but I was being narrow-minded enough to disregard this responsibility."

However, before committing herself to voting in favour of divorce, Dr Pullicino said she would have to see the finalised Bill to make sure that it did not trivially do away with the permanence of marriage.

"There have to be safeguards because otherwise we will have an overly libertarian country," she said, adding that her former husband's Bill had safeguards but it could go further in this regard.

Asked about the survey carried out by The Sunday Times, which found that 40 per cent of the population is in favour of divorce and 45 per cent against, she said its results were unsurprising but strengthened her resolve to seek a mature discussion on the issue.

She said the 14 per cent who were undecided could easily go through the same "evolution" she had passed through - shifting the majority.

"The discussion is taking place at the highest levels. Now it's an open discussion all of the time. Hopefully it will reach Parliament soon."

She stressed that although she was not constrained by her Catholic guilt anymore, she still wanted to be convinced that the introduction of divorce would be for the common good.

"Only God knows how it will be proven. We need to speak with open minds. What is clear is that there is a lot we need to rectify before passing this law," she said, referring to the backlog of annulment cases.

"But you must start from somewhere. And it's about time we begin."

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