New movement’s stand on cohabitation

Regarding the report Catholics Set Up Group For Divorce As A Civil Right (May 13), I would like to clarify a comment attributed to me concerning cohabitation.

What I told the journalist was that, according to our mother the Church, a divorced Catholic who cohabitates would be committing a sin and he/she would no longer be eligible to receive the sacraments. I never stated that our movement (Kattoliċi: Iva Għax Dritt) believes that the only sin was cohabitation, as was instead reported. In this referendum, what we are voting for is not whether we agree with divorce or not, but whether we believe that divorce should be a right. As a group we believe that it should; even though some members think that Catholics should never make use of it.

We believe that the state should not impose any particular morality on the entire population and this in line with what our mother the Church teaches in its catechism: “God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.2847).

Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion but never coerced them.

“For He bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it”. (Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae, 11; Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.160)