The right and duty to legislate for one’s country is vested in a democratically elected government. However, the government is acting in a hypocritical way. While accepting divorce obtained overseas, it denies this same right to its citizens. This is nothing but hypocrisy.

The government says it has no electoral mandate to legislate in favour of divorce, hence, the referendum.

To my mind, this referendum is not being held so that the government may know the people’s opinion but to obtain a mandate for or against the introduction of divorce.

I am against divorce, however, I will not cast my vote simply to express my negative opinion but to tell the government: Please, stop discriminating between those who can obtain divorce from overseas and your citizens who are denied this right in their own country! So I will be voting in favour as I cannot stick to my egoistic ideals and deny this right to even a single individual.

Some people say that those who vote yes will commit a mortal sin. This is simply not true. Mortal sin will be committed by those who for their own egoistic purposes want to impose their opinion on other people and who will try to deny this civil right to those who are entitled for it. Christ never imposed anything on anybody, so much so that he told his Apostles: “And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town” (Matthew, 10:14).

Civil marriage was introduced in Malta on the quiet, without squandering public money on referenda. So, let us put an end to this question once and for all so that it will never crop up again. There are more serious problems to deal with.