Gozo bishop calls for 'new pastoral action' for separated couples

Divorce is a civil issue and it should be decided by a referendum. The church should keep its nose out of it. Due to Malta not having divorce I watched my mother suffer. She had over sixty years of miserable married life. My father was a bible basher and went to church twice a day. He did not drink, smoke or gamble. In contrast, for no reason he used to treat my mum badly and beat her up on a regular basis. I remember her with black eyes, dislocated shoulder and jaw and many bruises all over her body. Being children, my brothers and I feared him. He forced us go to church every day. My mother was a very good woman who dedicated her life to bringing up the eleven children she bore for my nasty father. She used to feed us well and make most of our clothes. I know that she went without many necessary things to make sure that we were all looked after well. The kapilan knew about the suffering my mother endured. All he could say to console her was “God gave you a cross and you have to carry it”. So much for the stupid Catholic Church and its clergy. I know that my mum would have left my father if divorce had been available at that time. Unfortunately, she suffered all of her married life, but she outlived my father. One of my sisters has been going through the same bad experience for the past thirty years. The difference is that her nasty, unfaithful husband is not a bible basher or church going person. Due to my bad experience at home I emigrated at the age of eighteen. I married an English girl in the Catholic Church. Our marriage did not work out. After eight years we got divorced this was mutually agreed and it did not cost much or take too long to go through. It took me four years to get an annulment through the Maltese Catholic Church and it cost me a lot of money and a lot of psychological stress. A few years later I remarried to another English lady. She gave me two children and we are very happy. This time I had a civil marriage. I am very pleased that I did not get married in the Catholic Church. After my experience I made sure that I kept my distance from the most hypocritical religion on earth. I did not baptise our children and I did not encourage them to follow any religion. However, they both did very well at university and they are very successful in their professional careers. Divorce is not an evil. It is evil to expect people to stay and suffer in unsuitable, miserable marriages. It is evil to expect children witness their mother being beaten on a regular basis. If this is what God expects, then he is perverse. If divorce is the solution, then so be it. I know that there are many broken marriages in Malta. In such a situation both husband and wife suffer, including the children. I never forgave my father for the way he treated my wonderful MUM and I will never forgive the clergy either. It is about time that Malta joined the 21st century and the civilised world by having divorce available for those who want it. Stop listening to political hypocrites like Dr Eddied Fenech Adami, Prime Minister Gonzi and all those who agree with them, including the Catholic Church. PM Gonzi is a hypocritical liar like his uncle archbishop Michael Gonzi. These people have Medieval minds and have proved to be the most corrupt politicians in Maltese history. Go out in the streets and demonstrate like the Egyptians and the Algerians did until you get what you want. DIVORCE. After all the French, British, Italians and all other European countries express their disapproval towards their governments by demonstration until they get what they want. Do not be afraid.

The church is isolating ITSELF as long as it continues with its half-baked medieval thinking. Get in touch with the REAL world? NOT as long as it can get away with treating the gullible with utter contempt. Could it be that this is the reason the clergy call their "customers" sheep? Because sheep don't stop and think?

Speak about the church sending mixed messages. It appears that the local hierarchy has realised that separated couples do not care what the Church thinks. If people believe in God, they can find God in the love they share with each other and that includes cohabiting partners whatever their gender. The Church must realise that the referendum on divorce will be a mixed blessing. Whatever the result (even if not supported by the majority), the 'faith' of the country is at stake. Even if 30% vote in favour of divorce, that is the end of Catholic Malta. No one can after that claim that Malta is Catholic. A majority, yes! With time, that majority will shrink. I mean this fellow Grech is right out of the middle ages. Can he be trusted? Not on your life. He should have been appointed bishop of Filfla.

The words being spoken by the bishop seem to be the JOKE OF THE DAY! To who is the bishop speaking to the public who do not care about this lousy sermons on seperation, divorce, etc. Do people really need the church and its obsolete ideas. Time for the church to get real and upgrade itself!!!!

Malta: the last bastion of the" temporal Vatican" fiefdom. Just as the Knights were the purveyours to the Pope (lost under Napoleon,and regained substantially with the astute English colonizers and -lost again in part under Mintoff, regained again under Fenech Adami in 1993 and now with Gonzi-) the saga continues. The Vatican is the pupeteer who pulls the strings on the island. .Malta has always been under the "direct" control of the Pope, and letting go its not going to be easy. No wonder the Opus Dei is gaining in importance; this organistion together with some conservative and reactionary members of the PN are the Trojan horses for the Vatican in Malta.

The Dominican concordat (1954, Article 15.2) says explicitly that people married in a Catholic church, and therefore under Canon Law, may never file for a divorce. So, too, did the Portuguese concordat concluded with Salazar (1940, Article 24). At least in those countries divorce remained legal, even if one had to leave the Church to get one. However, divorce was impossible under both the Italian concordat with Mussolini (1929, Art. 34) and the Spanish one with Franco, (1953, Art. 23-25). It is still impossible in Malta, and the 1993 Marriage Concordat ensures that it will remain so. It is still impossible in Malta, and the 1993 Marriage Concordat ensures that it will remain so. allura sur prim ministru, dan il- paroli kollu li qed isir fuq id divorzju -jigifieri (kollox dahq fil-wicc ux hekk) xser taghmel fuq il-konkordat li eddie fenech adami ghamel bil-firma ta guido demarco 1993? u halluna u komplu hallu lil maltin fl-injoranza minaghlikom. mela in nies kollha boloh hsibtom.

http://nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm photos *************** The Catholic Church in Malta is behaving more like the Taliban than a Church that supposedly preaches forgiveness and turning the other cheek. But then, wherever it is given the opportunity, the Church will behave like some iron-fisted despot, crushing dissent and punishing heretics and blasphemers. http://www.secularism.org.uk/maltese-catholic-church-behaving.html ********** Taliban-like laws apply within the EU As the world argues over yet another motion from the Islamic bloc at the UN Human Rights Council that seeks to restrict free speech by introducing a global blasphemy law and little old Malta quietly interprets a religious law so oppressive it might put the Taliban to shame. Last week, six young people narrowly escaped a prison sentence because they dressed up as nuns at a carnival. They had been charged under Articles 163–164 of the Malta Criminal Code, which provides that: 163. Whosoever by words, gestures, written matter, whether printed or not, or pictures or by some other visible means, publicly vilifies the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion which is the religion of Malta, or gives offence to the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion by vilifying those who profess such religion or its ministers, or anything which forms the object of, or is consecrated to, or is necessarily destined for Roman Catholic worship, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from one to six months. 164. Whosoever commits any of the acts referred to in the last preceding article against any cult tolerated by law, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from one to three months. The Catholic Church, therefore, retains its special right to persecute and silence its critics on the island of Malta – which, incredibly, is a member of the “we-support-free-speech-equality-and-diversity” European Union. http://www.secularism.org.uk/115062.html *********** The Vatican concordat with Hitler’s Nazi Germany remains one of the Roman Catholic Church’s biggest embarrassments. Popes since Pius XII have tried to double talk their way out of the Vatican’s connection and support to Hitler, but don’t believe a word of it. Hitler’s own filthy mouth has admitted the connection, leading to the questions: Why hasn’t the Holy Hellish See excommunicated the bloody killer since he’s admitted to being a Roman Catholic and why hasn’t the Vatican ever rescinded the concordat? The researchers at Concordat Watch tried to answer this question since the Pope remains stone cold silent on this issue? http://www.arcticbeacon.com/greg/headlines/vatican-concordat-with-hitler-still-not-rescinded/ I can write hundreds of articles - YOU DARE TO SPEAK ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT OR WRONG? RIDICOLOUS! ONLY ONE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THE CHURCH HISTORY AND PRESENT CAN BELIEVE SUCH- IT'S LIKE THE WOLF WITH A SHEEP SKIN!

*** Gozo bishop calls for 'new pastoral action' for separated couples** HOW ABOUT THIS YOU $%#@*& The Irish TV station RTE this week broadcast a documentary which revealed a newly-uncovered letter from 1997 that showed that the Vatican had told Irish bishops not to report abusive priests to the police. http://www.secularism.org.uk/why-is-the-vatican-allowed-to-op.html Under Canon Law wife beating is no ground for divorce — in fact, nothing is. Therefore if you've been married in a Catholic Church, which means under Canon Law, you may find that a concordat has deprived you of your right to a civil divorce. The Dominican concordat (1954, Article 15.2) says explicitly that people married in a Catholic church, and therefore under Canon Law, may never file for a divorce. So, too, did the Portuguese concordat concluded with Salazar (1940, Article 24). At least in those countries divorce remained legal, even if one had to leave the Church to get one. However, divorce was impossible under both the Italian concordat with Mussolini (1929, Art. 34) and the Spanish one with Franco, (1953, Art. 23-25). It is still impossible in Malta, and the 1993 Marriage Concordat ensures that it will remain so. http://www.concordatwatch.eu/ This microstate off the coast of Sicily may well have more concordats per head than any other country in the world. Its history explains this. In 1530 the islands were given to the Knights of Malta in perpetual fiefdom in exchange for an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon. A century later the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta was awarded equality with a cardinal. He was henceforth addressed not just as "Your Majesty", like a king or "Your Eminence" like a cardinal, but as "Your Most Eminent Highness" — a title which showed the seamless unity of church and state in Malta. Even today, church and state are intertwined: Catholicism is the state religion (as it is in three other tiny European states: Lichtenstein, Monaco and San Marino). Malta's Constitution enshrines this in Article 2: 1.The religion of Malta is the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion. 2.The authorities of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church have the duty and the right to teach which principles are right and which are wrong. 3.Religious teaching of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith shall be provided in all State schools as part of compulsory education. Separation breaks the marriage. Marriage can be created again through divorce. In Malta this is not allowed. [...] It is a baffling and hypocritical situation, which is forcing people to live together without marrying. [...] If your marriage does not work the first time, you are relegated to second-class citizen status where you can never marry again [...] Now, if the Church does not want to allow divorce, that is its right. But why is the government mirroring the Church?

Dwar min qed jitkellem l-Isqof, dwar dawk li huma separati u jghixu ghal rashom, jew dawk li sabu partner u jghixu mieghu/maghha (jikko-abitaw).

So, typical of the moronic Catholic Church of Malta, it will reach out to separated couples to encourage them to avoid living in sin by becoming celibate. Dream on, idiots!