The reform of religious vilification laws would not be unconstitutional and would go ahead as planned, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici told the Times of Malta.
He was reacting to comments by Kevin Aquilina, Dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, who said amending the law as proposed would make the Constitution a “dead letter”.
“This is not the case. We will not be breaking the Constitution through amending this law,” Dr Bonnici said.
The government is proposing completely repealing two articles of the Criminal Code that make it illegal to vilify religion “by words, gestures, written matter, whether printed or not, or pictures or by some other visible means”.
Article 163 specifically speaks about the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion, and article 164 refers to other religions
Anyone found guilty faces up to six months behind bars.
In a Talking Point in this newspaper, Prof. Aquilina said the Constitution afforded the Catholic religion protection and this should be reflected in any reform.
“The decriminalisation of the protection of a State symbol or institution such as the State religion (or, for that matter, the national flag, the national language and the George Cross) is inconsistent with the Constitution’s supremacy provision,” he said.
Dr Bonnici, however, said he had discussed the matter with Prof. Aquilina himself and even sought advice from the Attorney General.
“I respect Prof. Aquilina’s opinion but respectfully disagree with it. I was also informed by the Attorney General that we are legally in order,” he said.
Dr Bonnici said that at no point would the reform be telling people to vilify the catholic religion. “On the contrary, we are retaining those laws which say that injuring religion with the aim of instilling violence or hate will still face criminal proceedings,” he pointed out.
The proposed reform has been strongly opposed by the Curia and, to a lesser extent, the Nationalist Party.
A position paper on the reform presented by Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the State religion should be afforded the same protection as the other State “values” protected in the Constitution.
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil argued that, while the law needed updating to allow for greater artistic freedom, allowing vilification could damage public order and national security.
ivan.martin@timesofmalta.com