The issue has sadly been left sharing space with the dust under the national carpet for far too long, and yet we all know there has never been as much need as there is now for the introduction of divorce in the Maltese Islands. This bitter reality is acknowledged publicly by many and, privately, by quite a few, including politicians and churchmen who have to face daily the human consequences of this old social dilemma.

It is generally agreed that the only obstacle that prevents Malta from joining the rest of the civilised world with regard to the granting of the right to divorce is purely political. Not that politicians do not recognise the need, or do not know how to go about it (they have done splendidly in the way they have helped those with money to obtain, from elsewhere, divorce which is instantly recognised locally), but it seems that they fear provoking the wrath of the local Church authorities. I prefer to call it the Irish Situation which, at one time, seemed an impossible one. Then, Irish eyes were opened and the Maltese suddenly became the only European nation that does not give many of its citizens the opportunity they obviously deserve, i.e. to start a new life.

As always, aware of the dangers of a one-to-one battle with the Church, our politicians have simply chosen to speak, or rather waffle, about it in the hope that people simply ignore the subject and characteristically forget all about it. It works for some time. In our case it has worked for a long time, but now may be the hour for the subject of divorce to be brought up again and seriously discussed in the highest echelons of Maltese society, including of course our hapless House of Representatives.

It has to be a meaningful discussion, minus the emotions and sentiments of yesteryear and with mutual respect on the part of the pro and anti movements on the island. For politicians this is the moment in time for them to show that they have matured and are now able to discuss issues that may have been taboo a decade or two ago. For the Church, under a new and enterprising Archbishop, it may also be time to face reality and accept that not everyone is willing to follow its doctrine, let alone the statistical fact that Maltese couples are, in desperation, obtaining their divorce papers from overseas as easily as one can order a sex toy on e-Bay.

The party in government will have realised by now that many of its adherents honestly believe in the dire need for a divorce law, particularly since the rate of official and unofficial separations has been spiralling up for too many years. Retained in power by a whisker, this may be the opportunity for it to seek consensus on the issue once and for all.

Afraid of the Church? Not if the politicians on the other side agree to support such an initiative, or vice-versa. The party in Opposition has just gone through the process of electing a new leader after its third consecutive electoral defeat and is only too conscious of the need to come up with new ideas and new initiatives that would help catapult Maltese society belatedly into the 21st century. Divorce would win it voters from both sides of the political arena as well as some predictable losses.

Most important, however, is that with the two parties in agreement over the issue, no Church objections could stop or hinder the process. It has to be a law that offers tough and proven access to divorce, certainly a far cry from the one-armed-bandit style of instant divorce that can be obtained and is indeed being obtained by Maltese citizens in some places around the world.

Of course, the Church’s teaching on the issue would not and should not be expected to change, and people who fervently believe they should act according to it would still have the liberty to do so. It would be exactly the same way it has worked so wonderfully well with civil marriage. Remember the rumpus way back in the 1970s compared to today’s complete disinterest in the subject? You can either go for just the civil marriage or you can do it the traditional, religious way. The choice remains yours and yours alone.

The state of Maltese marriages is such today that people are only too aware of the aches and pain that men and women are being subjected to. These are people who keep hoping for a better future and who want their lives to be given a new impetus. Cohabitation, let alone the freaky advice to abstain, is not to everyone’s fancy and there are many who would prefer to make their new, happier relationships a legally binding union.

They deserve the protection and assistance of our politicians and the understanding, if not the approval, of the ecclesiastical authorities. There is hardly a single Maltese family that has not been hit, remotely or not, by this ever-growing crisis in Maltese marriages. We all have friends and relatives who beg for a solution, many of them having pinned, perhaps naively, their hopes on Malta’s accession to the European Union. Many of them, by the way, are also avid churchgoers who are caught in a merciless stranglehold.

Now is indeed the hour for something to be done, and done effectively. If our “new” politicians, many of them young and intent on doing away with the old methods of doing things on these islands, are going to continue burying their heads in the sand in the hope that the problem miraculously fades away, the situation can only get worse.

The two major political parties are happily in absolute synch over the issue of abortion, though even here they seem to be helplessly watching as more and more Maltese women seek unwise refuge in the wide and beckoning avenues of other European Union member States.

If they do the same thing with regard to divorce, the issue would finally and surely be laid to rest. The right to divorce would soon be taken as a mere formality for those who need it and prove they deserve it. It would be no “pastizzi” solution, in the sense that people could go and order half a dozen at the counter, but a well-constructed law that offers respite while still adamant on the question of proven necessity.

Now’s the hour. The new generation of Maltese politicians has the chance to prove its credentials. The introduction of a divorce law would sound archaic and almost incredible to the rest of Europe, long used to its merits and demerits. The refusal to bring it up again for national discussion and actually doing something about it would seem, by comparison, Jurassic in nature.