Although in the last election, gay marriage was mentioned in both main parties’ manifestoes, one cannot conclude that the majority who voted for their respective parties agree with such a proposal.
It is ironic to start this legislature with a Mass conducted by Archbishop Charles Scicluna at St John’s Co-Cathedral where MPs were instructed to take heed of the doctrine of the Church while one of the first laws to be enacted is the Marriage Equality Bill, which will introduce gay marriage.
With the introduction of gay marriage we shall be redefining the meaning of marriage. According to the Chambers Dictionary, marriage is “the union of a man and woman as husband and wife”. Now that we are applying this concept of marriage to homosexual unions we are breaking a fundamental principle – that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.
The Social Doctrine of the Church affirms that “if from the legal standpoint, marriage between a man and a woman were to be considered just one possible form of marriage, the concept of marriage would undergo a radical transformation with grave detriment to the common good. By putting homosexual union analogous to that of marriage and the family, the State acts arbitrarily and in contradiction with its duties”.
Parliament, by passing such a law, will be publicly affirming that the concept of marriage, as has been traditionally accepted and practised by the majority of the Maltese Catholic population, has been changed. No wonder the Church has said that such a transformation would gravely be detrimental to the common good. Are we today aware of the consequences of such a law, not only on the concept of marriage but also on the concept of the family?
Why is it that in order to accommodate a section of society we are ignoring the good of society as a whole? Who, in Parliament, is going to represent the majority of us Catholics, who hold that marriage is a lasting union between a man and woman as husband and wife? This is the problem that most of us are facing today.
If only all MPs had to put the common good as the main principle to guide them when enacting laws, then, I am sure, they would surely find some common ground and there would be less discord and division.