I must admit that Dr Michael Asciak’s stance on the subject of cohabitation leaves me rather perplexed, and I suppose the local church authorities no less confused.

I’m not at all surprised by his persistent support of the anti divorce lobby. As a staunch member of the Roman Catholic Church community and an adherent of the Opus Dei group, he has no other option. People in his position are not personally free to decide on the divorce issue and if a referendum were to take place, the outcome would obviously be heavily constrained indirectly by current Roman Catholic dogma. This happens to be one of the main reasons why a referendum would surely be unfair and therefore not in order.

Dr Asciak ended one of his recent letters in The Malta Independent on Sunday of 12 September with this question: “Shall not the problems of the few, even if innumerable, be addressed without prejudicing the position of the many?” Now, why should the position of the many be prejudiced in any way if divorce legislation is ever enacted for the benefit of the few? How can anyone in his right mind possibly imagine that if divorce law were introduced for the minority that needed it, it would have an adverse effect on the extant stable marriages? If the stability of certain nuptial partnerships happens to be so tenuous then what sort of marriages would they be anyway?

Finally, there are two other valid reasons why this important civil right should be made available to the minority that urgently needs it, namely justice and democracy. Until the day dawns when divorce legislation is at last enacted the situation remains tremendously immoral and the full responsibility for this lies solely on the shoulders of our elected parliamentary representatives.

Vladimir Cini

Marsaxlokk