David Casa, the Nationalist member of the European Parliament, has highlighted the fact that marriage is on the decline in Malta, compared to some decades ago, and that "more people are cohabiting" (Let's Legislate Now!, September 4).

He does not recognise this as a social malaise. Instead of finding a cure for this social malady, he proposes to institutionalise it by law.

He has invoked the Nationalist Party promise, made during the last electoral campaign, to enact cohabitation legislation.

To seal his argument, he quoted from St Paul's letter to the Corinthians.

This is not the first time scripture has been cited to suit a particular viewpoint!

Mr Casa holds that "we are in duty bound to protect those couples that are de facto cohabiting." From a purely civil point of view, all these couples could take care of themselves if they opt for civil marriage - in which case they would be cohabiting de jure.

In his words, Mr Casa concedes that "it is an established fact that cohabiting relationships are more fragile, in the sense that they are more prone to break-ups than marriage".

The sane approach to this is to discourage cohabitation, and to shore up the institution of marriage and the traditional family - and this for social, legal and moral reasons.

Cohabitation has made fast inroads. It is a social malaise that undermines our traditional cultural and family values.

Among its evil by-products are the difficulties faced by children born out of cohabiting relations. These are real difficulties, for which legal solutions must be found.

The answer is to sanitise the Maltese social milieu and not to emulate the Gadarene swine by senselessly leaping with the herd in an abyss of destruction.