Divorce? The root to it goes deep, and there is more to it! It is a question of values. Our Roman Catholic religion is supposedly embraced by the majority of the Maltese. Having said this, our Catholic teachings prohibit any sexual encounter outside marriage. Call this fundamentalist, old-fashioned or whatever, it remains a fact that these teachings were valid for centuries, yet these last 40 or 50 years, using various convenient excuses of moving with the times, some people publicly proclaim that they can do whatever they want with their life or their body.
The fact is that the starting point of the issue is that our religion prohibits sex beyond marriage, full stop. The fact that many do it, does not right it. No amount of wrongs added all together make a right! What kind of right is this?
Our religion allows that in certain circumstances, a couple can walk apart, but that is the extreme limit. Then being human, men and women engage in adulterous relationships in defiance of Catholic teachings. It does not stop here! These “Catholics” would be living in sin and start complaining about being refused Holy Communion or their offspring not being allowed baptism! What next?
Holy Communion is about receiving the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ in our body and if one stops and reflects on this great miracle, one can never even think of receiving it improperly. Jesus’s own words were that “anybody receiving Communion while in sin would be drinking one’s own condemnation”
The reality is a sorry one. Very few Catholics in Malta are in line with Catholic teachings. A Catholic can never accept to choose which teachings one should embrace and discard those which do not fit one’s liking. Jesus himself warned that the way of life is full of thorns, narrow, bumpy and difficult. A Catholic just cannot take a shortcut and choose divorce and adultery whatever the circumstances.
I wonder why some find it so hard to understand why the Church takes a hard stand on these issues. Some disciples complained that some walked away when they came to know what was asked of them. Jesus plainly told them: “You can do the same if you do not like it.”
These are the main foundations of our Catholic beliefs which stood for centuries. These are never available for negotiation. Our Catholic ancestors faced being fed to wild animals rather than renounce their Catholic beliefs – and some are throwing all this to the dogs in the name of modernity and progress...