The people have voted. Truly not a great majority of them in terms of Maltese voting patterns, but enough to get a clear idea of where we stand as a nation.

For those of us who have been following all the various pro-divorce arguments, and who believe in the indissolubility of marriage – either because of what we have seen divorce do or fail to do in other countries as statistics confirm, or due solely to a religious conviction, or both – this referendum and its result should help us not only reflect but also offer suggestions both to the state as well as to the Church. I humbly put forward my own contribution in this regard:

1. We all seem to be in agreement that we have taken the family for granted and have taken its problems to be intrinsically related to the couple itself, not feeling the responsibility of conducting studies to see whether the general situation of the country (economic, lifestyle, employment, etc.) is, in one way or another, contributing to the stress and eventual break-up of that same family. Such studies are now a necessity more than ever;

2. As seen from the reality around us, as well as from the debates and the result, the marriage preparation teams and courses supplied only by the Catholic Church are not succeeding to instil the Catholic teaching about the indissolubility of marriage in the Catholic population at large, nor are they supplying the same couples with enough tools to realise they might be entering a marriage which has a great probability of collapsing. I am, moreover, perplexed by the idea that there may be a silent consensus of allowing Catholic marriages to be contracted by couples who clearly do not agree with Church teaching and who clearly lack the character and formation to live out their Catholic calling within marriage. I believe the Church should carry out a thorough assessment of a couple’s understanding of what constitutes a wholesome Catholic marriage before allowing them to marry in the Church. This would not only consist of a meeting with a parish priest who might not be equipped to carry out such an assessment a few months before the wedding, when everything would already have been set for the big day, but also involve lay professionals who have the expertise to gauge the presence or otherwise of the qualities necessary for a loving, lifelong commitment.

3. Up to now, the state has not felt the need to have its own structure of preparation and continuous support for the family, nor to make a joint venture with the Church in this regard (as in some form of public-private partnership). This also needs to be addressed and the government should pool in by assembling together teams of professionals to prepare and follow up couples who show no intention of marrying in the Church and would opt for a civil marriage only.

Of course, I have far from exhausted the topic.