Foreign Minister George Vella yesterday said that while the government will collaborate and respect the Church, the agreement signed yesterday to amend the agreement on marriages showed a clear sign on distinction that should be made between the two.

The agreement signed effectively makes the civil courts superior to the ecclesiastical tribunals which – up to now – superseded in such cases. This is a step in the right direction.

The Catholic Church will always be relevant to Maltese people – it is engrained in our culture and everyday lives. A lot of people still attend Mass and describe themselves as active and practicing Catholics.

However, as was seen in the divorce referendum, many Maltese felt aggrieved and some even insulted by the way the Church dealt with the issue. Time has passed since then and rifts have begun to heal, but the whole episode showed that there was a need for more separation between Church and State.

Previous Nationalist administrations were often accused of being in the Church’s pocket, or at the very least influenced by it in ways that it should not have been.

There is no doubt though, that Malta is becoming increasingly more secular. Most telling, perhaps, was Dr Vella’s comment that while the government will give the highest considerations to the Church’s opinions, the two will not always agree and that the government will not legislate as the Church chooses.

He also said that this was an electoral pledge that the Labour Party had made and that it had stuck to its promises.

The main effects of the amendments will allow the Civil Courts to continue hearing annulment cases, even if one of the parties may have filed an action for the nullity of marriage before the ecclesiastical tribunals. Up till now the civil courts would stop hearing a case if the same case was being heard by the ecclesiastical court.

Rulings in favour of annulment by the Civil Court will be declared legal for all intents and purposes by the state even if an ecclesiastical court decision is still pending.

If the ecclesiastical court rules against annulment the Civil Court can still declare a marriage as null. Up to now married couples were banned from seeking a ruling by the Civil Court if the Ecclesiastical Court had already upheld that the marriage was valid.

While these new regulations will no doubt ease the suffering that many broken couples have been through, the most telling part in yesterday’s announcement was the fact that the government has actually committed and not shied away from saying that there needs to be more separation between Church and State. This is positive, and the government should legislate secularly, but at the same time, the Church still has an important role to play in our society.