Writing about something of interest to readers while trying to steer clear of political controversy is no easy task particularly as we enter the final week of the electoral campaign. I am, therefore, grateful to whoever was behind the full page advert ‘authorised by Maltese Catholics united for the faith’ that has appeared in a number of local newspapers, for providing me with the necessary inspiration.
I don’t really know what to make out of this advert. Appearing during an electoral campaign, it is obviously targeting voters in view of the fact that both main political parties have pledged to legislate for full marriage equality; the reasoning being that once the Civil Unions Act gives a couple the same rights and obligations as a married couple, then why not call a spade a spade.
My first objection with this advert, apart from the fact that we do not know who the so-called “Maltese Catholics united for the faith” are (thankfully the Archdiocese of Malta has made it clear that it has nothing to do with the advert), refers to the opening sentence in the first paragraph stating that: “We respect everyone, be they teachers, nuns, gays, immigrants, or self-employed.”
Becoming a teacher, self-employed and to a certain extent even a nun, is a career choice or vocation. Immigrants are persons who come to this country to settle here for some reason or other. Yet again, it is often a choice albeit at times some migrants may be constrained to leave their home country in search of a better life. Being gay is not, however, a choice. It is how God chooses to make you when you are born. Given that we are all created in the image and after the likeness of God, I do not need these people to tell me that they respect me, because my dignity is inherent and not dependent on what others think.
That this individual or group behind the advert still has a problem with gay people is evident. Gay persons are dismissed as an insignificant statistic – one per cent! Apart from the fact that the actual proportion of gay persons in our society is surely higher than that, as far as I know, Catholic teaching focuses on the centrality of each human being, affirming the equal dignity of all people, no one excluded.
The way in which religion and the State look upon marriage may vary because Church and State exist for a different purpose and, hence, may have different goals and means
The advert also refers to same-sex marriage as “unnatural”. The obvious implication of this statement is that the authors consider that same-sex attraction is something unnatural. As I wrote earlier, they probably think that being gay is something one chooses just as one may choose to be a teacher or a nun. In using such terminology they may be drawing inspiration from the teaching of the Catholic Church which in its catechism, while distinguishing between the homosexual person and homosexual acts, defines the latter as being “intrinsically disordered… contrary to the natural law”.
The Church has every right to teach what it believes to be true. However, it is not the prerogative of the Church to regulate the social order. This belongs to the State. In legislating, the State is bound to take into consideration both the common good as well as the well-being of each and every member or category of society even if this makes up a mere one per cent of the population.
In reply to a parliamentary question last November, Equalities Minister Helena Dalli said that since the coming into force of the Civil Unions Act in 2014, 120 same-sex couples entered into a civil union in Malta, five same -sex couples entered into a civil union abroad and had this union registered in Malta and 18 same-sex couples got married abroad and had their marriage registered in Malta. That’s almost 300 people who are today enjoying the same rights and subject to the same obligations as persons who are married.
There was a time when the Church practically dictated what the legislator could or could not do. Even the Church itself today recognises that this should not be the case. Therefore, it is crucial that when discussing marriage, one distinguishes between what the Church defines as marriage in a religious context and what society might wish to mean by marriage.
The way in which religion and the State look upon marriage may vary because Church and State exist for a different purpose and, hence, may have different goals and means. The Church’s definition of marriage stems from its belief that marriage is a sacrament. When studying theology, we were taught that marriage is more of a covenant than of a contract. For the State, however, it is clearly a contract regulating the rights and obligations of two persons towards each other and how this affects their status vis-à-vis the wider community.
I respect the position the Church may hold in terms of the sacramentality of marriage and its double role – unitive and procreative. However, when it comes to defining what marriage is in terms of civil law, the considerations are of a different order. The Marriage Act does not define ‘marriage’. It merely regulates who may or may not contract marriage.
Actually, the law does not even refer explicitly to the fact that marriage can only be contracted between one man and one woman. The only reference I could find was where the law refers to the form of a civil marriage where it states that the officiating officer asks each of the persons to be married, “whether he or she will take the other as his wife or her husband respectively, and upon the declaration of each of such persons that they so will, made without any condition or qualification, he shall declare them to be man and wife”.
Just as the introduction of divorce in 2011 did not in any way impinge on the Catholic definition of marriage, amending the Marriage Act to extend its applicability to same-sex couples will not alter in any manner the nature of canonical marriages, that is, marriages celebrated in accordance with Church law.
‘Maltese Catholics united for the faith’ may wish to call this embracing the devil. I would prefer to call it an act of justice that strengthens the respect for fundamental human rights and civil liberties in this country.