Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, the co-presenter of the Divorce Bill told Parliament yesterday that the Church had, and should continue to have, a duty to speak up but during the referendum campaign it did not show the best people within it.
Speaking during the debate in second reading of the Bill, Mr Bartolo said that he had no doubt that the Catholic Church was much better, more positive and had many more good people within it than what was projected during the campaign.
He argued divorce was not a Church dogma and it would have been better had the institution read the signs of the times.
He referred to the thesis presented by the Maltese Bishop in Albania, Mgr George Frendo in 1973 on the indissolubility of marriage where he had reflected on marriage in the 13th century from the eyes of an erudite person in the 20th century.
Mr Bartolo said that if the Church had inspired itself and made deep reflections on what Bishop Frendo had written, it would have remained loyal to its principles without passing through a similar situation in the 1930s and the 1960s where again it risked losing faithful from both sides of the political spectrum.
Malta needed a good, positive, honest and an evangelical Church. The Church did not need to necessarily agree with what he said but the Church could have been different. He mentioned three instances where churchgoers were frightened with bearing disable children, suffering cancer or going to hell if they voted in favour of the introduction of divorce.
The worst service during the campaign was given by those who were trying to sell Christ as if they were selling wine, he said.
The Church could have been different if it gave certain persons within it the freedom to speak their mind. He added that in Malta, as in Italy and Ireland, the divorce issue was settled through the vote of Catholic believers.
Mr Bartolo quoted Fr René Camilleri who last October had said that people had not been taught on what conscience was, let alone on responsibility. He said also that the Vatican Ecumenical Council had made it clear that politics and the ecclesiastical world were two different entities.
The Church could never agree to divorce but it could not hold the country from taking decisions that were the competence of politicians.
Mr Bartolo said that a lot of good would have been achieved if the Church had adopted this line of thought. What was needed were the Church of Christ and not the Church of Constantine.
He called on the Church to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the Vatican Ecumenical Council quoting the late Pope John XXIII that instead of issuing condemnations, it had to bring Christ’s words of forgiveness and honesty.
Earlier, Mr Bartolo referred to the court judgment on a TV Yes campaign advert carrying a clip of what Fr Charles Vella had said in a previous TV programme. He said this judgment would create problems in electoral campaigns because it meant that the political parties had to seek permission from each other to broadcast clips of what their leaders and members said in public.
Mr Bartolo said that Malta’s rate of marriage breakdown and children born out of wedlock were comparable to other European countries. In 2005 the marriage breakdown rate stood at 1.79 per cent where the EU average of the crude divorce rate stood at two per cent and 1.9 per cent in the eurozone. The Malta rate for marriage breakdown was on the same level as in Holland, Bulgaria and Poland and was higher than in Italy and Ireland where the crude rate stood at 0.82 per cent.
The crude divorce was 1.2 per cent for Slovenia, 1.3 per cent for Greece, 1.5 per cent for Rumania, and 1.7 per cent for Spain. Malta’s rate was lower than in France, Portugal and Cyprus where the rate was higher than two per cent.
Statistics also showed that the number of children born out of wedlock between 2005 and 2010, increased to 28 per cent of total births.
All this showed that the time was ripe to introduce no-fault divorce to the island, said Mr Bartolo.
Parliament had to legislate while safeguarding the three main principles which the electorate had voted approved the referendum: the four years’ marriage breakdown with no hope of reconciliation, the guarantee of maintenance rights for dependant members and the no-fault divorce. The Bill could not be weakened or distorted or changed in such a way as to go against the essence of the divorce question before the electorate.
He declared that the amendments proposed by the PL’s technical group did not betray the no-fault divorce issue. He welcomed amendments form others to fine-tune the Bill. He added that the division of assets would have already been made through the separation process.
Mr Bartolo said the members had to respect the electorate’s wishes where 40 out of 68 towns and villages had voted in favour of divorce.
The Yes campaign had spent some €30,000 not necessarily in financial terms but also through facilities, other material and talent from distinguished people.
The referendum gave new impetus to Parliament to function autonomously. He called on the service of legal drafters to help Private Member’s Bills to be presented according to legal procedures and technicalities.