I have always been a convinced Catholic and never anti-clerical, but I find the bishops’ “iffy” statement embargoed for Saturday night particularly despicable and offensive to the intelligence of the Maltese people, not just the electorate.

They knew well enough that the Church (not just the bishops) had hurt religious people who, because of their own or family circumstances, or out of a sense of altruism, wanted to vote for divorce but maybe did not at the end because of the religious terrorism (yes, I do endorse that phrase).

The Church is not just the bishops but the hitherto “open-minded” Gozo Bishop Mario Grech was in the forefront in doing untold harm to his diocese, harm that through the media’s good work crossed the waters over to Malta. Now he will either have to eat humble pie and allow yes voters to go to Church and receive Holy Communion, or churchgoing numbers will dwindle even more drastically. So there was no “if” about the hurt. But if the bishops felt they needed to apologise, why did they embargo their statement to after voting time instead of doing it in good time to relieve the anguish of those with religious sentiments who wanted to vote yes?

Just like the harm of the 1960s, it will take a long time, if ever now, for the harm to be undone, not only with the present electorate but also with the up-and-coming one. And the bishops have only themselves and their zealots to blame for it.