I am sick and tired of opening newspaper after newspaper in the morning and reading about the divorce referendum. Its true we had the royal marriage of Kate and William in London, the beatification of Pope John Paul II in Rome and the slaughter of bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan interspersed during the whole saga but unfortunately we are back where we started – throwing mud into the faces of those who do not agree with us.

The divorce debate started on a very slow pace, where both political parties stated in parliament that they would allow MPs to vote freely. However I cannot understand why everything has changed, and the whole thing has been so politicised that today we have two camps; if one is pro-divorce, he/she is a Labourite, if against divorce a Nationalist. This situation is not new in Malta.

What is new, at least for me, is that now even academics and an ex-Judge have thrown themselves into the fray, not to pass on their wisdom, but by insulting others who do not pull the same rope with them.

All those, me included, who are not in favour of divorce are told that our place is with the Ayatollahs. But the worst accusation that I have read so far is the one against the Church by the same retired Judge. He is reported to have said that what the Church is doing is a crusade to safeguard its privileges. He also thinks that the Church is against divorce because of financial motivation. These are the words of a retired Judge, who until a couple of months ago used to sit on that high chair judging us citizens.

More or less, the last time I heard such accusations were in the 60s but not from judges. I thought that everything was buried, but not for Judge Sciberras. To be fair, I also want to say that he said that he is a practising Catholic. I am also and very proud to say that I am a Catholic too, but after hearing and seeing all this I am not sure that I am a practising one, as this word, ‘practising’, is confusing me nowadays.

I am not part of any camp, but I am against divorce, because I repeat that divorce cannot eliminate other evils that unfortunately exist in the country, besides it can open other doors for more. I am very sorry to say that one day divorce will be introduced, as unfortunately that is the way we are moving. When the population of a nation loses its values, everything is possible.

■ Joseph Muscat

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