The Church needed to spread its message against divorce not only on the basis of the teachings of the Bible, but also on the basis of facts in everyday life, Archbishop Paul Cremona said this evening.

He said the Church could never accept divorce because God's spiritual authority to unite people in marriage could not be transferred to man to dissolve.

While such teachings were valid for the members of the Church and needed to be conveyed to all of society, the point of departure was not just faith, but also facts, the Archbishop said. Christians could see that facts proved their faith.

"We should show facts to society so that all the members of society and society itself may then draw its own conclusions," the Archbishop said.

Mgr Cremona was addressed representatives of ProgettImpenn, which groups the Diocesan Family Commission, Caritas Malta and the Cana Movement.

The representatives presented Mgr Cremona with the report on divorce, published last month, entitled For Worse, not for better.

In his address Mgr Cremona thanked the three organisations and underlined the importance of their work for the stability of families.

He said that their marriage was clear: the country would not have stable families and marriages unless the state, the church and other entities worked for this purpose in every way.

There was much which hindered family stability today, he said.

Once the state had declared that stable marriages and strong families were beneficial for society, then married couples deserve assistance in virtue of the contribution they gave for the well-being of society in the same way as other sectors needed assistance from the state in order to live a decent life when family breakups resulted in financial, emotional and social problems, Mgr Cremona said.

The report can be found at

http://www.maltadiocese.org/newsdetails?id=581&l=1See also

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090816/local/the-introduction-of-divorce-does-not-worry-me-cana-movement-founder