It is time for Catholics to stand up and be counted on the divorce issue, former President Eddie Fenech Adami said today.

Speaking at the University Chaplaincy in an activity organised by the Għaqda Studenti tat-Teoloġija, Dr Fenech Adami, himself a staunch catholic, said it was unacceptable that religious arguments in the divorce debate were dismissed a priori.

He did concede, however, that these arguments could not always work, when for example discussing with someone who was an atheist, and said that believers should try to understand their interlocutor’s milieu.

He also continued in line with the bishops’ pastoral letter for lent, and said that this was an opportunity to re-evaluate the family and build a new family culture.

Dr Fenech Adami also mentioned Pope John Paul II’s and Pope Benedict’s teachings on the theology of the body, which present the human being as body and soul united as one, and who, through sexuality, could live their vocation to love. Sexuality, these days, has been debased, and the church restores dignity to this aspect of human existence, Dr Fenech Adami said.