Thank the Lord it is over. The greatest charade this country had ever seen has ended, or has it? Whatever, now it is up to us to start harvesting what the people had sowed; some of us will pick the fruit in the near future, the rest in years to come, but everybody will taste it, one way or another.

Our consolation is that now we are like the rest of Europe with its progressive way of life.

For all this, the nation is very much in debt to Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando who had the guts to start it all. Of course, Jeffrey was not alone; there were others from all walks of life that were quick to grab this opportunity. This time, as it was a referendum for divorce, the political parties decided to take a back seat, saying that MPs would have a free vote. After the Nationalist Party took its position against divorce, the Labour Party, as far as I remember, did not, but both parties agreed that Parliament had no mandate for it in this legislature. But then hypocrisy surfaced once again. Dr Joseph Muscat said he was all for it, and his party’s TV station was the best one for advocating divorce. I also believe that the party’s newspaper also had a big say, I say believe because I do not read any political party newspapers. I followed nearly all the evening divorce programmes on Super One and every one of them I found very disgusting and unbalanced, and as though that was not enough, even the presenter was against the No side, and the institution that was targeted the most, in my opinion, was the Church. To be fair, I must say that I never heard Dr Schembri mention the Church, but others did. They resurrected the 60s again, no not the criminal actions of those days but the way Archbishop Gonzi had acted. This time the No campaign had all the media, a TV station, lawyers, ex-politicians, intellectuals and experts of something (I cannot mention them all) judges, and even members of the clergy against it. They even imported an Italian monsignor to say that divorce was OK. How can one win against all that?

Sometimes, the programmes on Super One were educative too. For example, I never knew, because I never read the Bible, but it was interesting to know that Moses had two wives and that Solomon had many concubines; I forget the number but it was over a hundred. I cannot understand the connection of these things with marriage. But this intellectual never told us that after Moses and Solomon, Jesus Christ had come and founded his church, which is very different from Moses’.

However, divorce has come to stay, and Dr Schembri has reported that there are other things to work out, and after some rest she will decide to tackle them as well. Today I assure Dr Schembri that she will find support from the same and other people using the same arguments that were used in this referendum. Once I wrote in the media that I am against divorce, and one of the reasons is that divorce will open the floodgates to all other evils and malpractice that have become unfortunately common in Europe.

Who are the winner and loser in this referendum? In my opinion, the first are the lawyers, and if something is left, the clients. The losers are the Nationalist Party and the Church. The Nationalist Party is the loser not because it supported the No divorce campaign, but because the whole thing was politicised, and its position has gone from bad to worse. I appeal to the party, if it wants to listen, to realise its position and do something about it, although it’s already too late. In my opinion, and I honestly wish that I am wrong, the Nationalist Party is disintegrating by the day now. Please stop that rot now.

As for the Church, from the moment Jesus Christ created his church it was a loser. One of his 12 had betrayed Him, and He lost him. Throughout the centuries, the Church has always been in defence mode but has survived for 2,000 years, so it’s not something new.

Yes, divorce has come, but not because of Dr Schembri or those other experts that had graced the small screen, but because the beauty of our small nation has vanished, where we have nearly lost the values we once had. And when we reach the end of that line, everything is possible.

Joseph Muscat

MOSTA