In his apostolic letter motu proprio proclaiming Saint Thomas More patron of statesmen and politicians, Pope John Paul II wrote: “Man cannot be sundered from God, nor politics from morality” (§ 4). A number of local Catholic politicians have admitted that they are personally against divorce. Nevertheless, if confronted with the will of the majority in favour of divorce, they said they felt morally obliged to follow the majority’s wish. Are they justified in their claim?

Those politicians who consider themselves Catholics must know the Catholic Church’s position on divorce. In order to rightly form one’s conscience before irresponsibly giving in to people’s wishes, it is appropriate to recall once again that: “Divorce is a grave offence against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognised by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery. If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another’s husband to herself. Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2384-2385).

The arbitrary respect of the people’s will in favour of divorce by a Catholic politician would be tantamount to adopting political utilitarianism. The latter holds that a policy is right in so far as it tends to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Accordingly, if divorce legislation brings the greatest satisfaction for the majority that would qualify it as intrinsically right. This argumentation is false since in itself divorce is detrimental because it destroys family life and harms communities and individuals, especially children. That is why the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s document of 2002 entitled ‘The Participation of Catholics in Political life’ stressed that “the family needs to be safeguarded and promoted, based on monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, and protected in its unity and stability in the face of modern laws on divorce: in no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such”.

A Catholic politician is Catholic both in his/her private and public life. His/her individual and political decisions should reflect his/her Catholic beliefs. Quoting the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem, the same doctrinal note stated that “there cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands, and on the other the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture. The branch, engrafted to the vine which is Christ, bears its fruit in every sphere of existence and activity. In fact, every area of the lay faithful’s lives, as different as they are, enters into the plan of God, who desires that these very areas be the ‘places in time’ where the love of Christ is revealed and realised for both the glory of the Father and service of others. Every activity, every situation, every precise responsibility – as, for example, skill and solidarity in work, love and dedication in the family and the education of children, service to society and public life and the promotion of truth in the area of culture – are the occasions ordained by providence for a ‘continuous exercise of faith, hope and charity’”.

I greatly admire and fervently pray for those Catholic politicians who will vote against the introduction of divorce in Parliament. Even if pressured by a consultative referendum in favour of divorce, they will certainly do their utmost to ensure that this plague is not introduced in our Christian country. Bearing in mind God’s hate for divorce (see Mal 2, 16), they would conscientiously champion and safeguard the unity of marriage and the family by their political choices. Their sterling political service would exhibit the Church’s maternal solitude, neatly exhibited in Pope John Paul II’s famous dictum, “as the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live”.

Mario Attard OFM Cap