Amendments to the 1992 Church-State agreement on marriage was signed this morning by the Apostolic Nucio, Aldo Cavalli and Foreign Minister George Vella.

The main change is that the Ecclesiastical Tribunal is no longer superior to the Maltese Courts in marriage annulment cases. To date, the courts had been prohibited from continuing to hear cases for annulment  if the same cases had been filed before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal.

The new agreement also repeals a proviso which had banned spouses from resorting to the civil courts if an Ecclesiastical Tribunal decided that a marriage was valid.

Dr Vella welcomed the agreement and thanked the Holy See for its willingness to reach an agreement after the Prime Minister declared his wish to see the original agreement changed. The amendments, he said, was clear testament of separation between Church and State, as laid down in the Constitution.

The revised agreement was drawn up by a joint committee which included Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici, Attorney General Peter Grech, Gozo Bishop Mario Grech, and Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna.

The agreement provides that judgements of the ecclesiastical tribunal will retain their civil effects if their registration in the Public Registry is ordered by the Court of Appeal.

In ordering such registration, the court cannot re-examine the merits of the case, but but has to ascertain that procedures had not violated fair trial principles and the judgement of the tribunal did not go against previous contrary judgements of the civil court.

Parties will be able to continue marriage annulment cases before the civil court notwithstanding the fact that one of the parties may have filed an action before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal after the commencement of the civil action.

A civil court decision declaring a marriage as null will apply even if a case regarding the same marriage is pending before the Ecclesiastical Tribunal.

In the 'exceptional' cases where proceedings before the tribunal are concluded before the civil proceedings, the decision of the tribunal may be given civil effects only after it has been registered by order of the Court of Appeal.

That removes the need for the parties to continue their case before the civil court, while the Court of Appeal will retain the last word.