Carmel Scicluna, ee careful when quoting the Bible. It becomes dangerous when people forget that the Bible is not one book but a collection of manuscripts written thousands of years ago.

A Roman emperor became Christian and that act started the Roman Catholic Church. The Bible was then compiled from various texts, some were even left out completely. Scholars today are still trying to piece together some very old parchments from the same era that might or might not deserve to be included.

There have also been serious challenges as to various translations into Latin from the languages and dialects of the Middle East. There is reference in the Bible regarding a father selling his daughter into slavery (Exodus 21: 7-11). Do we take this literally and consider it a right or have we matured to a stage where we can read the Bible bearing in mind the time period that it was written?

There is also reference to separation of man and woman in the Bible. Look it up; iit is interesting reading. For myself I believe that should there be a God he (she) would have a very open mind and that ultimately we are all responsible for our own actions.

So mature of you.

I will be in Malta for a few more days and I’m doing a study on the possible introduction of divorce and I would love to speak to you about it. I’m sorry to ask you like this but I could not find an other way to get in touch.
Best
Laura

2) Id-dibattitu fuq id-divorzju qatt ma ghandu jsir, fl-ebda parti tad-dinja: min hi dik il-kreatura li tista’ tghawweg kelmet il-Kreatur? Kull darba li l-kreatura tghawweg Kelmet il-Kreatur ifisser li qed tinqata’ frotta ohra mis-sigra tal-gherf (ara l-bidu tal-Genesi) b’dannu ghall-bniedem stess.

3) Id-dehriet tal-Madonna, madwar id-dinja kollha, dejjem seddqu dak li diga’ hemm miktub fil-Bibbja fuq id-divorzju.

4) Il-qalb tal-bniedem trid tinbidel biex jieqfu l-problemi. Il-ligijiet ma jhollux diffikultajiet. Bil-ligi gdida b’rizq id-divorzju mhux se tinstab soluzzjoni ghall-problemi interminabbli li hawn. Jieqaf id-dnub, jieqfu l-problemi fiz-zwigijiet, ma jkunux hawn separazzjonijiet.

5) Iblah min jahseb li nies bhali huma happy-go-lucky fi zwieghom. Iz-zwieg tieghi mimli diffikultajiet – u allahares tkun tafu x’tip ta’ problemi ghax iggib ghajnejk wara widnejk – imma sakemm jien u l-mara nibqghu haga wahda ma’ Gesu’ u nghidu r-ruzarju kuljum iz-zwieg taghna mhux se jfalli.

6) Apparti l-ispiritwalita’. F’kaz ta’ divorzju t-tfal, possibilment, qed nimpostaw fuqhom step-mother jew step- father gdid u half-brothers u half-sisters godda. X’demokrazija hi din?

Inhoss li l-PN tefghana lura hafna meta ddikkjara li huwa kontra d-divorzju. Ta’ l-inqas messu ma hax posizzjoni.

Ghaliex jiena, li m’ghandix bzonn id-divorzju, ghandi nivvota LE u ncahhad lil haddiehor li ghandu bzonnu?

Tajjeb mela, LE ghad-divorzu u IVA ghall-koabitazzjoni. Halluna tridux.

L-Arcisqof kien qal li l-knisja mhix ser taghmel krucjati kontra d-divorzju. Jista’ jghidilna mela x’inhi taghmel?

Sa anke mistoqsijiet fl-ezamijiet hargu barra kitbiet ohra fil-fuljetti u leaflets ohra li hemm ippreparati biex jitqassmu fid-djar.

Li jonqos biss hu li naraw xi monsinjur jaghmel xi meeting fuq il-fosos.

Inhoss li jekk irridu nkunu demokratici u naghtu d-drittijiet li min ghandu bzonn ghandna bi hgarna nivvutaw IVA fir-referendum.

Imbaghad wara naraw kif ser jagixxu dawk il-bulijiet li hemm fil-parlament li suppost qed jirraprezentaw lilna.

Meta jigu bzonna huma tarahom b’wicchom infurrat gejjin ihabtulna l-bibien. Meta jakkwistaw dak is-siggu plus il-paga u hafna perkacci ohra, imbaghad addio kollox u ahna l-poplu nintnesew fi ftit zmien.

GHALHEKK VOT IVA HUWA IMPORTANTI.

Shut down what? The limited number of bars and discos?

Or the endless amount of ‘gentlemen’ clubs which are very popularly frequented?

I met Labour supporters who will vote No too. Yes, that is democracy.

The whole affair was mucked up because the real reason for putting forward this bill and even the referendum itself was not the greater good but personal interests, on the one hand, and the hope that this issue would damage the party in government, on the other.

There is no real leadership. Who is championing the cause? Nobody, even the leader of the Opposition is half-hearted about divorce because his intent was opportunistic not something he was truly convinced about.

You cannot lead by staying on the fence and not taking a stand.

Political parties play an essential role. We all think politicians are a bunch of idiots wasting our time and money and yet look what happens when parties and politics do not work or do not have the enthusiasm to work.

The split in the Nationalist Party has taken away a lot of its fighting spirit. With the Nationalist Party out Labour is hoping to win yet another vote by default but they should have learnt by now that it doesn’t work that way.

The timing is disastrous. Labour and JPO were in such a hurry to get a referendum going because they thought now is the time. The world is going haywire and we are discussing divorce. I think that the mood is such that at the moment many feel the issue is completely irrelevant.

The RC church is only doing what it should be doing and that is defending the sanctity of marriage. It is not interfering and even if it did there is nothing wrong. Everyone has a right to say what he thinks. I think that we can safely say that the Maltese in general do not follow blindly what the RC church tells them to do.

As for Maltese having a weak democratic spirit, I hope you are wrong. I believe that in general we have a very strong democratic spirit – maybe not perfect, but who is?

You seem to be saying that those who argue that divorce will give people the chance to ditch their wives are saying so because they would do that themselves. Again I disagree. I am 100% sure of this.

[Daphne – That is not what I wrote. I wrote that their arguments sometimes lead me to conclude that they are trying to convince themselves above all.]I am sure that

As soon as we have divorce legislation in Malta more and more men will leave their wives and more and more women will leave their husbands and most will leave on a whim. You will have people going in for marriage with less of a commitment knowing there is an escape clause and more tahwid in general. One can always argue that that is what’s happening at the moment anyway but with the same argument so many people are taking drugs so why not legalise?

[Daphne – Nobody marries on a whim, and nobody leaves a spouse on a whim, either. The difference in attitude towards marriage that you see in, say, Britain has nothing whatsoever to do with divorce. It goes way, way deeper than that, right back into history and the way society was organised. Italy has had divorce for decades, and regards marriage much as the Maltese do – again for historical reasons.]

“I really do think it has very little to do with religion. We don’t have a great tradition of sticking to religious diktat. We break every rule in the Catholic book.”

Ah yes, but Daph you are overlooking the fact that those rules are the ones that “we” may commonly need to break ourselves.

As for allowing others to break rules that we may not need to break? Ma tarax! Let’s stick to the Bible, shall we?

Hypocrisy and double standards at their best.

Nothing different to drivers who think it is OK for them to break traffic regulations “just a little bit” but woe betide anyone else daring to do likewise.

We all do. Troppo taxation bastardo!