Pro-divorce lobby cites theologian Rene Camilleri on Church’s divorce stance

Theologian Fr Rene Camilleri was interviewed on One TV programme Inkontri on October 18, 2010, during which he said he can never agree with divorce.

“The Church can never agree with divorce, I can never agree with divorce…t he Church will continue to talk about what it believes in regarding family issues, but the Church has no power to stop this country from making decisions which fall within the competence of politicians,” Fr Camilleri said.

After two thousand years of Catholic tradition all this panic on divorce has ensued because “our people have not been taught to educate themselves on the meaning of an informed conscience,” he said.

Moviment Iva campaign manager Michael Falzon said today in a press conference outside the law courts in Valletta, that the demarcation between Church and the State in Malta should be clear.

“In other countries abroad, there is a net separation between the Church and the State, where the Church recognises the power of the state and realises that it cannot annul the civil effects of marriage,” he said.

Falzon said that Malta should be a liberal democracy, but such a distinction between the two in this divorce issue was far from clear-cut. “That the law courts must bow their heads to the decisions of the Ecclesiastic Courts in the case of an annulment continues to show how the separation in Malta is not clear cut,” Falzon said.

“However, abroad, where separation between the two is net, an annulment by the Catholic Church does not carry any civil effects,” he said. “If divorce per se is intrinsically evil, then how are Catholics worldwide asked to get a divorce before an annulment?”