In his Sunday homily, Bishop Mario Grech told his congregation that divorce and any legal measures that break down a marriage are “intrinsically bad” since they go against God’s will. This invoking of God’s will is an age-old device used by priests to impose their moral code on their followers, as Will Durant explains in his book The Lessons of History.

“Religion does not seem at first to have had any connections with morals. Apparently... ‘it was fear that first made the gods’ − fear of hidden forces in the earth, rivers, trees, winds, and sky. Religion became the propitiatory worship of these forces through offerings, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer. Only when priests used these fears and rituals to support morality and law did religion become a force vital to the state. It told the people that the local code of morals and laws had been dictated by the gods. It pictured the god Thoth giving laws to Menes for Egypt, the god Shamash giving Hammurabi a code for Babylonia, Yahveh giving the Ten Commandments to Moses for the Jews, and the divine nymph Egeria giving Numa Pompilius laws for Rome.”

In his homily, Bishop Grech avoided the word “sin” in order not to go against the law of the land but appealed instead to the feelings and sentiments of his congregation by telling them that they would not be free of “guilt” if they did not bring their judgment in line with the teachings of the Church. Just as priests did in the ancient past, the Catholic Church instils fear and guilt in its followers when everything else fails to keep them in line.

John Guillaumier

ST JULIAN’S