The pro-divorce lobby yesterday criticised the Church for scaremongering over divorce but thanked priests who were helping it with Church teaching on conscience.
Speaking at a wedding venue, Il Cortile, the movement’s secretary Deborah Schembri said despite initially saying it would not launch a crusade against divorce, the Church was now “scaremongering”, using homilies, household blessings, confessions and visits to old people’s homes as opportunities to speak against divorce.
“It has been publicly stated that the Church is financing the No Campaign and is even helping out in offering its property for use by the anti-divorce movement. We are not in any way passing judgment as to whether or not the Church should do so, however, we feel that the public should be given the facts,” Dr Schembri said.
“These manipulative tactics are deplorable at best, appealing to the Catholics’ fear of God, and at worst they are disrespectful to those whose pain is being insensitively ignored,” the family lawyer said.
She also challenged the Church to say why abroad, family tribunals asked those asking for an annulment to get a civil divorce beforehand. The movement, however, also publicly thanked a number of members of the clergy (who were not named) “who are supporting us with information on the Church teachings about divorce and the importance of one’s conscience”.
Dr Schembri juxtaposed the Lenten pastoral letter about the family with an excerpt of a commentary on the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council written by Joseph Ratzinger, the present Pope.
The latter says that one’s conscience should be obeyed “before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority”.
Former minister Michael Falzon referred to an opinion piece in The Malta Independent by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech – a devout Catholic – who wrote that Catholic belief could not be divorced from the marriage debate.
“The Church should be left free to promote its messages in favour of the stability and permanence of marriage and nobody should expect anything different. Faith can never be alienated from this important debate. It may be in the interest of the pro-divorce lobby to make this debate devoid of religious sentiment but what they fail to appreciate is that the vast majority of Maltese still care about their faith and God’s teachings,” Mr Fenech wrote.
Mr Falzon said: “In circumstances where a member of the Cabinet doesn’t distinguish between civil marriage and religious marriage, we should be asking the Prime Minister whether this is a secular state or a theocracy,” Mr Falzon said.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando MP said he had been receiving many negative messages from people, some saying that what he was doing was hurting the Virgin Mary.
One message, however, included “physical threats”, which Dr Pullicino Orlando felt compelled to report to the police for the safety of his family.
During the press conference, family lawyer Dr Schembri, a family lawyer, revealed she was no longer allowed to practice in the ecclesiastical tribunal because of her position on divorce.
In a statement issued late yesterday, the anti-divorce lobby Moviment Żwieġ bla Divorzju said that as a “democratic country, we should always and in any circumstance safeguard the right of every person and organisation to express their opinion without negative repercussions” and encouraged a mature debate in the run-up to the referendum. The movement did not specify who they were referring to.