Whether deciding on the introduction of divorce by applying the Church's teachings or by reflecting on what is in society's best interest , one is led to the same conclusion, anti-divorce lobbyist Arthur Galea Salamone said last night.
He stressed that the anti-divorce movement was not part of the Church and was not trying to impose religious beliefs on anyone. In fact the movement was made up of people of various beliefs and backgrounds.
However, he was not surprised to see that reasoning according to Christ's teachings and according to society's interests led to the same results, as Christ had the best interests of society at heart.
For example, he said, the State did not forbid stealing because it was one of the commandments but because it was a bad thing.
"The fact that we are taking a stand against divorce does not mean we are imposing religious beliefs... everyone has a right to their opinion and freedom," he said.
Dr Galea Salamone was speaking during an interview aired on TVM and organised by the Broadcasting Authority as part of the run-up to the May 28 divorce referendum.
As he replied to questions put to him by six journalists, he said the government had been irresponsible in the way it had imposed he divorce decision onto the population.
This was a historical decision that could change society for good yet the subject was being dealt with too quickly, without the necessary research and without equipping voters with enough information.
He said he was concerned that people were losing sight of the fact that they were voting for the introduction of divorce as proposed in the Bill – "no reason divorce" that undermined marriage.
He said the public was being misled into thinking that maintenance was guaranteed but this was not the case. If a man earned € 1,000 a month, it was unlikely that he could afford to maintain two families. Besides, the second wife would only be entitled to part of the shared marital assets as part would be owed to the first family.
Asked whether he agreed that divorce was a civil right, as stated by the pro-divorce campaigners, Dr Galea Salamone said: " A person has a fundamental right to set up one family but not to have as many families as he wants."