The Prime Minister has indicated that a referendum on divorce would be held next year after a debate in Parliament on the Private Member’s Bill presented by Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
The news came from Dr Pullicino Orlando himself who yesterday said he had discussed the matter with Lawrence Gonzi and Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg on Monday.
“Dr Gonzi expressed his wish that, after the Bill is discussed, we would get the people’s approval through a referendum next year,” Dr Pullicino Orlando said.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said a meeting had taken place and divorce was discussed but did not confirm that a referendum would be held next year.
However, the spokesman added: “The Prime Minister has already stated in the past weeks the decision should be taken by the electorate.”
Dr Pullicino Orlando said he had agreed with the Prime Minister on what he could tell the press if faced with journalists’ questions on the matter.
Asked whether he approved of the decision to call a referendum, he said it was “completely” up to the Prime Minister but he too was more comfortable having the people’s mandate.
He said this was a sensitive issue and neither political party had the public mandate for it.
“I’m pretty confident that if the people were asked to vote on the legislation I have put forward, which gives a second chance when marriages are irrevocably broken, they will accept it,” he said, adding that it would be unjust to ask the people to decide on whether or not to introduce any type of divorce.
“The people need to know what they are voting for as was the case in the Irish referendum,” he insisted.
Months ago, Dr Pullicino Orlando had said he would wait until January for the Bill to be discussed in Parliament. Asked if this timeframe still stood, he said January was never a deadline and he would allow things to take their natural course, depending on the parliamentary agenda. The debate was rekindled by comments made by Judicial Vicar Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino in a homily during Mass marking the start of the forensic year last week. He said: “All the Church has to do is teach that whoever cooperates in any way in the introduction of divorce, who applies the law and who seeks recourse to it... would be breaking God’s law and so would be committing a grave sin.”
Reacting to Mgr Said Pullicino’s statement, Dr Pullicino Orlando said the Judicial Vicar had every right and an obligation to try to convince people that his opinion was correct but he had no right “to force us to accept the chaotic situation, which is the direct result of the lack of divorce legislation in this country, by threatening us spiritually.”
“The fact that he feels he has to resort to such hysterical measures suggests his opposition really stems from a quest for the retention of his temporal powers. This is definitely not what the Church should be all about.”