Judicial Vicar’s comments on divorce, sin (2)

What the Judicial Vicar, Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino, was reported as saying about the possible introduction of a divorce law in Malta, was simply shocking.

Mgr Said Pullicino, who presides over the Ecclesiastical Tribunal which hears and decides on petitions for marriage annulments, went as far as to warn judges not to apply the law if and when a divorce case comes up before them to decide, if ever divorce is introduced in Malta. Mgr Said Pullicino also told lawyers to desist from taking part in divorce proceedings and be ‘conscientious objectors’.

Despite the fact that the Archbishop has clearly stated that it is not a question of ‘sin’ if someone votes for a divorce law, but that ‘convinced Catholics’ are expected to abide by the Church’s teachings on divorce, Mgr Said Pullicino seemed to undercut the Archbishop by saying “the Archbishop cannot say anything different from what I am saying”.

Which means that once Mgr Said Pullicino has said that all those who “co-operate” in the introduction of divorce, including judges who apply the law, “would be committing a grave sin”, the archbishop has to say the same thing, even if he has spoken quite differently.

One now waits to see whether the bishops will allow the Judicial Vicar to relaunch the ‘crusade’ – which the Archbishop had said the Church did not want – to take the Church and the country back to the days when the Church in Malta had imposed mortal sin on those who voted Labour, and for which the Church had apologised after many years.

The question now arises as to who is actually leading the Church in Malta – the bishops or the Judicial Vicar, Mgr Said Pullicino and the Pro-Vicar of the Curia, Mgr Anton Gouder.