Prime Minister Joseph Muscat met Archbishop Paul Cremona and Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna at the Curia last month. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The Government has written to the Holy See requesting talks to revise the 1992 Church-State agreement so that the Civil Court would prevail over the Ecclesiastical Tribunal.

The agreement gives the Ecclesiastical Tribunal the final say in Church marriage cases.

However, the Government believes it is the Civil Court that must be supreme in these cases, in line with the principle of separation between Church and the State.

In a statement, the Government said it had written to the Apostolic Nuncio, the Vatican’s ambassador in Malta, with a view to starting talks on the subject.

The issue had been broached on March 22 when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat met Archbishop Paul Cremona and Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna at the Curia in Floriana. The need for separation between Church and State was the main message conveyed by Dr Muscat that day.

Holy See and Malta must assess if it is in their interest to review agreement

Archbishop Cremona had replied that the Church was available for such talks.

“Together we will see what is best for the Maltese population even with regard to civil marriage,” he had told Dr Muscat.

The Archbishop’s Curia had told The Times in 2011 that the Church would “look positively” at enhancing “specific elements” of the agreement.

“It is up to these two parties [the Holy See and the Republic of Malta] to assess whether it is in their interest to review the agreement in place or not,” a Curia spokesman had said when asked whether the Church favoured a review of the agreement.

“If specific elements in the agreement could be enhanced, resulting in an authentic benefit for those resorting to the present agreement, the Church would look positively upon such real improvements.”