The Maltese have decided! Malta has to move on to a new form of society based on a new definition of a public institution that has been at the basis of its weave for considerable years and the considerable re-dimensioning of another institution that has so far been considered so important that it enjoyed a prominent mention in the island’s Constitution.

From last Sunday morning the institution of permanent marriage has ceased to exist and has been replaced by a contract that will largely assume the connotations of a common contract between multiple parties with access to an exit legislation. How this will change our society in the long term is everybody’s guess. One hopes that our legislators can learn from the generally negative experience of other countries and come up with a legal instrument that while respecting the majority’s decision and offering an exit from marriage to those that request it, keeps in mind the wider order of things. Divorce legislation should not in any way replace the pressing need for legislation to help preserve families. Maybe the latter should have been in place before divorce was considered but that is now history.

From last Sunday morning the Church in Malta has been delivered a rough reality check, if any was needed. It is more than evident that the majority (even beyond that which decided the outcome of the referendum) consider it irrelevant, if not a menace, on issues that concern the individual’s own interests. To myself the Church has long been counting all and sundry as belonging to its fold comfortable in the illusion that numbers constitute a following and hence convinced that when it speaks the masses obey. This attitude of safeguarding this perceived reality has been particularly evident in the discussion to reform the “holy festas”, where it adopted a cautious position that had as an objective the preservation of head count.

I cannot see the Church recovering from the severe blow if it does not carry out the extensive and long-due pruning required in many areas. In my opinion the Church should, without forgoing its pastoral mission and the values it stands for, reconstruct itself from the very basics. Should the cautious approach continue to prevail the Church can follow the suggestions made by some à-la-carte opinion makers and politicians and limit itself to subjects determined by others.