One question to all in favour of divorce: how many of them suffered a breakdown in their family?

I suppose this is not a matter of religion, this is a matter of respect and responsibility to one another! Well done to all the good people of the world.

Thank you

Cohabitation is not desirable for two people in committed relationships in the same way that marriage is.
Marriage provides some benefits and some security of mind. Marriage, in most countries, means that spouses have hospital visitation rights, they can make medical decisions for their partner if the latter is mentally unable to do so and a lot more.
Just because the implementation of divorce will affect our pockets doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen, it makes up for it in other ways.

@ A. Charles … absolutely correct. There is no reason against divorce just fundamentalist hysteria.

@ Gordon! don’t insist on being so ridiculous in your comments.
1. Mandate! It is just a sensible consequence of allowing re-marriage to those who’s relationship has failed. Have you any idea how many couples live together in misery and how many others live (so called “poggiuti”) with their new partners anyway. These people are all over the place!

2. State coffers! What absolute rubbish! Perhaps you might even suggest that it is the cause of the widespread recession haha

3. There is more ranting AGAINST divorce … fear of what may I ask! Stray dogs have nothing to do with it, absolutely idiotic.
Women and children are already being abandoned, divorce helps these women rebuild their lives.
An Irish colleague once told me, isn’t it great to be Catholic, we can have as many mistresses as we like and they don’t dare ask us to leave our wife because we cannot divorce!

“the minority will force the majority to dump the years old traditional family values”

Nobody will force you to dump anything. Stop, think and allow the rest the same courtesy to choose which values to live up to.

In the 8th paragraph above, I’ll have to plead mildly aphasic fingers for my typos [followed by my incomplete proof-reading within the limiations of the window of the box].

The first line should have read: the Marriage Tribunal in America issued a “declaration” of “nullity” of marriage on the basis of its affirmative decision.

All other errors also are fully mine. I am reminded: first, one forgets where the car is parked [of course, it is somewhere in the neighborhood, but was that the last time, or the second or third time before that where it was parked?]. Then the slips between the head and the fingers yield proximate spellings on the written page; and sometimes the keys on the old keyboard don’t register a stroke [missing letters], which my piano fingers don’t detect.

Eventually there is Alzheimer’s, and all recent memories disappear [as was the case for my maternal grandmother]. Sigh!

Next time I’ll try not to be so speedy in writing the text.

The Catholic Church has no right to influence a referendum. It has no voting rights; the same way that the Chamber of Commerce – or any organsation has no voting rights.

[Daphne – The Catholic Church, just like any other lobby group or stakeholder, has every right to campaign for the No vote in a referendum on divorce, just as the Chamber of Commerce campaigned for a Yes vote in the EU referendum.]

This is a state matter and one for individuals not organisations. The only influence the church should have on such an outcome is the vote of the individual priest or nun – and that is already too much in Malta given their numbers.

“ Huwa fatt li hafna zwiegijiet qed jitkissru… Din hija sitwazzjoni perikoluza…[ L-] iStat ghandu jaghmel xi haga biex jizgura li c-cittadini kollha jigu organizzati b`ligijiet adegwati…“

Ahseb u ara jekk iddahhal il- ligi tad-divorzju kemm sa jizdiedu aktar dawn il- kazijiet. Il- Eurostat irrapurtat li d-divorzji fl- Irlanda zdiedu b` 144 % mill- 1998 sal-2007.

The introduction of divorce may solve the problems of one couple and destabilize the marriage of ten others.

Since when have individual priests who espouse divorce [ with the best of intentions I hasten to add] become infallible ? I would have thought that infallibility is a charism attributed to Popes when they speak ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals . Though even non- Catholics would have to acknowledge that the Popes were prescient and well ahead of their times when they spoke and wrote about the causes of various social ills. And would you believe it, they even got it right about secular issues such as the global financial crisis and the Iraqi war ! Mhux talli kienu aggornati sew talli kienu futuristi ukoll rigward il- konsegwenzi .

Since when has the PN become fatalistic – defeatist almost- in the face of admittedly very difficult situations such as the burgeoning problem of marriage breakdowns presents ? I would have thought that a nationalist politician of long-standing would have looked at things in a different, more innovative way. The PN has brought to fruition so many projects with this attitude and mindset :

For example, our University system is possibly unique in its own way and perhaps like no other in the world [ not even in the Philippines ! ]; Mater Dei and the entire set-up is second to none in the world – and even the Americans [ well anyway , the US Ambassador to Malta ] would like to emulate it ; Tiny Malta at the United Nations came up with the concept of the seabed being the common heritage of mankind when no other State, large or small, ever did.

In a society such as ours, which is a microcosm of other much larger societies – given that human nature is the same wherever you go and given that the indissolubility of marriage is not a monopoly of Christian believers but a universally held good in the collective memory – why not get down to conducting extensive scientific studies on the causes of marriage breakdown ? Why not research the correlation between the irretrievable breakdown of marriages and the possibility that such marriages were never on a sound footing in the first place and the role which the State Courts and State annulments may play in such cases ? Why not explore ways how to salvage marriages which are going through a rough patch but which are not necessarily doomed to fail? Finally, why not carry out an extensive study on why many marriages do succeed even though they are not necessarily made in heaven?

Everyone is free to live his/her own life the way they want. But don’t expect that when things go wrong, and acting against the trends of civil society, the minority will force the majority to dump the years old traditional family values (which unfortunately today’s youth don’t even know they exist) with the NEW PROGRESSIVE TRENDS: same sex marriages, lesbians, gays, pogguti, unhealthy bonds between perverts, and shout to the world : “look we are a progressive country”. We are not mad to take this long damning road to our own damnation. We will continue to fight for a healthy environment for our families, old and new.