The Vatican and Malta will be setting up a joint commission to revise the contentious 1992 agreement that grants supremacy to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal over civil courts in marriage annulments.
We want this to be resolved within a matter of months, not years
“We believe this agreement no longer applies and we have found full understanding from the Holy See and the Maltese Curia to revise it without delay,” Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.
He was yesterday addressing the press against the background of the Vatican after his first official visit with Pope Francis I and more in-depth talks with the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on the Church-State concordat.
The 1992 agreement was the main issue of yesterday’s agenda. When it was introduced by a Nationalist government the agreement laid down that civil marriages were conditional to procedures by the Church Tribunal if one of the spouses opted to annul the marriage in that court, giving supremacy to the Church.
The way things stand today a judge has to suspend the hearing of annulment cases in the civil court until the Church Tribunal delivered its decision on the canonical annulment.
One of the first things a Labour government did when elected was send a note verbal to the Holy See in April requesting talks to revise this agreement.
Accompanied by Foreign Minister George Vella and Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici, Dr Muscat said he had made it very clear to the Vatican that he wanted the matter to be speeded up.
“We want this to be resolved within a matter of months not years,” he said.
Dr Muscat added that this meeting also served to give the Vatican an insight into how this agreement was often abused by couples to vindictively delay the separation process and not through religious conviction.
“The Holy See understood the situation had to be revised especially after divorce was introduced in Malta... There is the willingness to change from the Vatican’s side,” he said.
Dr Muscat said the Vatican felt that amending the agreement’s Article 10 should be enough, but the Government believed there should be a wider revision in the light of the introduction of divorce in Malta.
Article 10 says: “If in future there shall arise difficulties of interpretation... the Holy See and Malta shall entrust the search for an amicable solution to a joint commission...”
It also specifies that this commission will be composed of the Apostolic Nuncio to Malta and of the President of the Maltese Episcopal Conference or of their delegates for the Holy See, the Justice Minister and the Attorney General.
Asked if the Government was obliged to wait for this commission’s decision, Dr Muscat made it clear he wanted to maintain open dialogue with the Church.
“There is an intimate connection that developed over the years with the Church and the last thing we want to do is make a unilateral move that somehow affects these historic relations,” Dr Muscat said.
Stressing the importance of openness, Dr Muscat said that during the meeting he had also raised his Government’s initiative to introduce civil unions later in the year.
“We don’t want the relationship with the Vatican to be a hypocritical one, which is why we mentioned the subject,” he said, adding that he had also assured the Vatican the Government’s stand on abortion had not changed.
Yesterday’s meeting started at 11am when Dr Muscat’s official carcade arrived at the cobble-stoned courtyard. A cool breeze ruffled the red, ostrich-feather plumes of the Swiss guards, providing them with a welcome reprieve from the sun.
The Vatican’s gendarmes led the Maltese delegation – Dr Muscat was accompanied by his wife Michelle and his four-year-old twins Etoile and Soleil – through the high-arched, frescoed halls of the apostolic palace.
The delegation was met by the prefect of the Pontifical household, Georg Ganswein, and the Pope’s private secretary, Gozitan Mgr Alfred Xuereb.
Dr Muscat then had a private, 13-minute audience with Pope Francis where he extended an invitation for him to visit Malta.
At 11.22am a bell rang, signalling the end of the meeting and the time for the Pope to meet the rest of the delegation.
Pope Francis was immediately drawn to the twins and Dr Bonnici’s daughter Ema and pushed them closer to him for the official photos.
Dr Muscat then presented the pontiff with four ceramic works by Liliana Fleri Soler representing a meditation on the four gospels, to retain the Pope’s spirit of simplicity. Pope Francis reciprocated by giving Dr Muscat a pontifical set of three medals in bronze, silver and gold.
“The Pope always comes across as humble but the cameras still fail to capture this in its entirety; he radiates humility and I was really touched by this,” Dr Muscat said.