A yes vote on Saturday “might begin untying the noose which fastens together Church and state,” according to the Catholic pro-divorce lobby.

In a statement, the group said the protocols between the Vatican and the Maltese state, which recognise the civil effects of a Catholic marriage, made a “mockery of Church and state” and “generated unspeakable suffering which... neither government nor the Church seem to care much about”.

Whatever the result, Kattoliċi – Iva, Għax Dritt invited people to join forces and tackle the real causes of marital strain and family breakdown.

“The causes of real marriage collapse lie elsewhere. Both state and Church, while repeatedly posing as champions of some ideal family, fail to adequately address such hardships. Moreover, some officials of these institutions are the same individuals who are responsible for some concrete practices that are causing enormous strains on Maltese families,” the group’s spokesman Carmel Hili said.

“These include onerous house loans, short-term employment, the cost of living, the government’s failure to increase parental leave (and the opposition’s failure to adequately oppose this), the violent and macho culture which still dominates Maltese society, a kind of egoism which our economy considers a fundamental virtue, starvation wages for those in the lowest echelons of society, and other features that were truly undermining the institution of the family.

In a separate statement, Moviment Graffiti called for a yes vote on Saturday. The movement condemned the Church for “attempting to impose dominion, through moral bullying and psychological intimidation, over state matters by actively resisting the introduction of divorce and the possibility for two partners in a failed marriage to contract a second state marriage outside of the religious sphere.

“A vote for the introduction of divorce will not only alleviate the suffering of those who are currently unable to remarry but will also be an affirmation in favour of a secular society where religious beliefs are not imposed on each and every one of us.”