Primarily, marriage and divorce are not a piece of paper. They are matters of the heart. One is either married in one’s heart or one is divorced in one’s heart. The piece of paper is just a certificate that can mean a lot one day and nothing the next day.

And these are not just words. There are considerations of course. Although I think civil divorce should be enacted, I dare say it will affect a very important aspect in the local banking system, i.e. home loans. It will make it harder for a couple to borrow money because the repayment securities will not be seen to rest on solid foundations. The result could be higher interests, at least in Malta. And they’re high enough as they are. Banks will not dish out a home-loan to cohabitants unless they provide adequate securities. Marriage weighs substantially in this respect.

To be free from pecuniary anxieties has been and will continue to be man’s quest for a fulfilled life, irrespective of one’s social and/or spiritual status.

Governments and religious governments are bound to respect this! Indeed, they claim they do. I think the core element that brings about the great divide in this national discussion is consensus.

Having said this, on the other hand, who is to say that just because 10,000 couples file for divorce, the other 70,000 are going to do so as well? It’s absurd to think this would happen. Marriage is a more attractive proposition that by far outweighs divorce, in Malta or anywhere else, and it is still a more secure union than cohabitation, because most people want to feel safe. Just that some would feel safer not being tied down, that is all, and the law should take this into account and provide for it.

I think the bone of contention is that those who have submitted themselves to unconditional commitments in a relationship, signed and sealed by official decree, need to start looking at divorce as an acceptable cure among other cures, and not as the cause of a problem. And it wouldn’t be a wise or responsible thing to do to send anyone to hell and back just because they genuinely made a mistake getting married.

Annulment is a separate issue, and people need to have a clear understanding of what it means. In the eyes of God’s church (which is really man’s interpretation of his/her esteem), annulment actually means the cancellation of marriage vows. In other words a promise was never a promise if it is not kept, now or in some future. Whereas divorce is a separation of what really took place.

I also think that lengthy discussions and national debates on this issue are not healthy. I think that the sooner and the swifter the law is introduced allowing for civil divorce, the sooner the healing process... and we can get on with life and focus on more important issues, because we risk missing the woods for the trees!

Cecil Herbert Jones