It takes a news report titled ‘Church-State talks on amendments to marriages law successfully concluded’ to push the point home. The whole idea of a secular state – one of the foundation stones of any genuinely democratic state – really has not caught on yet yet.
The talks revoled around amendments to the 1992 law on marriages “so that the Church Tribunal would no longer be superior to the Civil Court on matters of marriage annulment”.
I won’t go into the whole matter of how this state of affairs – where a non-governmental structure wound up superior to what should be the highest courts of the land – came to be. The historical background is easily accessible to everyone, and it happened 21 years ago anyway.
The question is, of course, how come the anomaly was not rectified earlier. You might say I’m splitting hairs, and that as long as we are firmly on the road to a secular state, everything is fine.
Well, that’s the thing. Everything is not fine.
Government has finally stated that church-state separation is the way forward, but in the same sentence seems to imply that this will only occur with the blessings of the church. A bit of an oxymoron, innit?
Secularisation is a democratic right. It is a process that needs to be implemented by government, and not something to be discussed with the church itself. Otherwise, it kind of defeats the whole purpose.
Attempting to “reach an agreement that would be satisfactory to both the Church and the Government”means that you have already failed in your mission.
The church, as an organisation, might be seeking participation with all the best intentions in the world. But it doesn’t change the fact that it has no place in these discussions.
The archbishop’s statement clinches it: “together we will see what is best for the Maltese population, even with regards to civil marriage.”
It will be unpalatable to many, but the fact remains. The church should never be made a stake-holder in government discussions about civil marriages.
And there’s your first lesson in Secular States 101.