I sincerely hope and expect that MPs from both sides of the House will be inspired solely by the good of society and the well-being of children in particular when debating and voting on the Civil Unions Bill.

Even if the party in government had promised in its electoral manifesto to equate same-sex unions with marriage in everything but name –which it did not – the last word should be left to the electorate, as was done in the case of divorce.

However, I would like to add that the outcome of such a vote in a referendum will only be an expression of the people’s will. But it would make absolutely no difference to the meaning of marriage which, from the very beginning, has meant the union of man and woman and their ability “to become one flesh in the natural expression of love and the natural openness to the gift of parenthood”, as Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna so aptly put in his letter in The Sunday Times of Malta two weeks ago.