Let the fun begin!

Wow! What an honour!

This has been the week of the Borg family. Last Wednesday my brother, Frans, make the front-page of a certain printed publication which its owners describe as a newspaper. Today – Sunday April 10 – I made the front page of the same rag. I guess you guessed. I am referring to Malta Today.

I also made the front page of It-Torca. I want to thank its editor. My photo on It-Torca is nicer and larger than the one on Malta Today. Besides, it heading is more complimentary in my regard. I am one of the “imhuh” of the no to divorce campaign. It is clear that the editor of It-Torca recognizes and publicly acknowledges talent when he sees it! Prosit!

The divorce campaign was becoming a bit dull. Thanks to the tandem Malta Today and It-Torca things are bound to brighten up. Oops, I forget to mention the third column of the pro-divorce lobby: One TV . This station, in the evening repeats what the Malta Today says in the morning. This is what they did last Wednesday I hope they will do the same this evening, otherwise I will feel insulted.

You see, the Partit Laburista is neutral on the divorce issue. It is so neutral that they placed one of the leaders of the pro-divorce lobby as the head of its broadcasting media.

Let the fun begin!

My “nefarious” suggestions

And why am I taking so much space and air-time, you may ask?

The answer is very simple. The Malta Today – Torca – One tandem have a copy of emails that were exchanged. In those emails I made some shocking and most horrible suggestions. I will list them for the benefit of those who will not have the time to check the primary sources.

These are some of my nefarious statements:

1. The Church must be involved in the divorce debate without making crusades or creating panic.

2. The Church should use both the pastoral note written by the Bishops and the statement made by seven priests – I was one of them – that says people must be guided by their conscience. In that statement we said that divorce is bad. However, we listed a number of cases where one can arrive at a decision in conscience to vote in favour of the introduction of divorce legislation.

3. Two information leaflets should be published.

Then there was the mother of all nefarious statements. If one were to compare Herod’s massacre of the innocent to my statement, the massacre pales into insignificance. My statement is so vile that the worst child abuser never thought of even thinking it, let alone putting it into writing and divulging it by email!

I wrote that we should identify, with the help of parish priests, separated couples and their sons and daughters (word used in Maltese t-tfal taghhom ). Why did I want to identify these persons? My email states very clearly the reason why. It gives this aim: “jitkellmu (bis-sens) kontra ligi dwar id-divorzju.”

Can you image a six year old boy or girl discussing intelligently (bis-sens, in the Maltese original) the proposed legislation? Can you image a twelve year old boy or girl; or a 14 year old boy or girl doing the same?

It should be clear to anyone with a reasonably decent IQ that I was not referring to minors. I was using the word “tfal” in the same way I use it when I say that “jien u huti – ghalkemm ghandna l-eta – ahna t-tfal tal-genituri taghna.” I could not have been referring to minors as they cannot be reasonable expected to intelligently discuss the proposed legislation.

Why are Malta Today, It-Torca and One TV using these tactics against those who criticize the adoption of divorce legislation?

Could it be that they want to bully us- myself and the others mentioned - into silence? I do not think that the answer is in the affirmative. Even they know that we all have a very thick skin and we just laugh away these attacks. They target us to send a message to others whose skin is more delicate than ours. They hope to scare people away from the anti-divorce movement.

At first they tried scaring away people by high jacking many media outlets to create the impression that everyone is pro the Las Vegas divorce proposed by the JPO-Muscat-Bartolo tandem. When this tactic miserably failed they resorted to bullying.

Read my lips: This tactic will not work.

Divorce harms children

There is another reason though. The pro-divorce lobby knows that most Maltese people will do everything for their children. They will sacrifice everything so that their children will have a better life than theirs. The pro-divorce lobby knows that most Maltese parents believe that divorce harms children. This fear is supported by many studies made overseas. As a result the pro-divorce lobby wants to eliminate this argument from the debate.

Let me for starters reproduce what I wrote to Malta Today about the subject.

“I do believe, however, that we have to find a way of listening to children (even minors) as they are innocent victims.

In Parliament, Marie Louise Coleiro quoted Kirsten from The Centre of the American Experiment saying that ‘the No. 1 public health threat to American children is … something we, as parents, bring on our children ourselves: divorce.’ She quoted a study by Raptor and Fagan saying ‘Children of divorce are at far greater risk for a host of ills than their peers from intact families.’

I will write more about the subject in future blogs.

For now I will enjoy the reports of Malta Today and It-Torca. I will not be at home at 7.30p.m. so I will not see the news bulletin on One TV. Can someone please record it?

I do not want to miss any of the fun.

On a different note all together

From Monday till Thursday, I will preaching Lenten Sermons at the St Joseph Parish Church, Bwieraq Str. B’Kara. The reflections start at 8.00p.m. I will not be discussing divorce. On the first day I will discuss what makes us happy according to the Psalms. On the following three days I will reflect on the encounter between Christ and the Samaritan lady, the man born blind and the sisters of Lazarus.

You are welcome.