Divorce legislation has been on our statute books for two months, and the courts have also begun to grant divorce decrees.

However, we must admit, we have not seen the divorce tsunami that we were warned of. On the contrary, not only have we seen just a trickle of divorces being granted by the courts, we have also not seen so far many (or any) of the expected re-marriages.

Maybe, of course, these things have a momentum of their own. But also, maybe, not all the people who were so vociferously in favour of divorce before the May referendum, will end up getting one.

Each one of us can look around and examine the people who were so much in favour of divorce then. Going by personal experience, it would not seem that all (or in many cases, their partners) were ready to go and get divorced. On the contrary, it would seem that some or many of the ad hoc couples seem quite happy to remain as they were.

Of course, all this can change. Today’s trickle can become a stream. People may still be looking around and seeing how it’s done. Perhaps even lawyers and courts are still finding their way in this unprecedented legal morass.

But perhaps too, there may be other reasons. This is surely a subject that students of Maltese society will undoubtedly study and research in the future.

On the one hand, we can see now how most of the dire predictions made by the anti-divorce movement have so far not come true. There has been no big change in Maltese society, people did not rush to the courts on 1 October to get divorced. People still get married, we even have a multitude of wedding fairs. We cannot say from the people around us that people are choosing to live together in preference to getting married.

On the other hand, though, many of those people one expected to see formalising their situation by getting a divorce seem either in no hurry to do so or else find that staying like they are is a better fit.

So in a way, divorce has not become the panacea, the solution for everything that some may have thought it is. There are still people in unwholesome family situations, there are still families that are breaking up, and presumably there are still dysfunctional families where people, especially children, are suffering.

Maybe that is the way it is. And maybe too that is the way our country is. It is our sincere conclusion that the Maltese people are more mature than many people think they are. They are mature in that they refused to get scared of hellfire and brimstone and voted for divorce because that was what they felt to be the right thing. And they may be more mature than many of us seem to think they are by taking things in their stride and not rushing off to the divorce courts as soon as they could.

Obviously, one must look long-term in such cases. The long-term aim of introducing divorce legislation was not to do away with marriage as an institution but to provide a fundamental remedy when a relationship has irretrievably broken down and the people in that relationship are suffering in such a situation; to provide a way out when married life becomes hell.

There is still a lot to do. In particular, our young people still need to be prepared better for married life. Couples that are facing difficulties must still be helped and counselled because not all problems inside a marriage should lead to marriage breakdown. There is still a lot to be done as regards marriage counselling, helping couples with problems, offering help to bring about reconciliation and promoting that very human characteristic that is called pardon.