The tribe that lost its head

The warning given by the Judicial Vicar, Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino, to all those who ‘cooperate’ in the introduction of divorce – including judges who apply the law – would be ‘committing a grave sin’, confirms that the some in the Curia have lost their head over the divorce issue.

Of all the sins that members of the judiciary could be tempted to commit, the one that excited the Judicial Vicar most seems to be the potential one of a judge giving a divorce decree after divorce is introduced in Malta some time in the future!

As it so happens, the Director of the Public Registry already has the duty to register divorces decreed by foreign Courts. Does he deserve eternal damnation for this co-operation? Will the Curia refuse to administer the sacraments to this poor chap?

As it also happens, a Catholic in Australia who asks his bishop to start annulment proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts down under, is first asked to obtain a divorce from the Civil Courts before the proceedings for annulment are even started. This is because the Catholic Church in Australia dares not declare the annulment of a marriage that is still binding and valid in the eyes of the state. In that part of the world, the Church is subservient to the State that is obliged to maintain order in society, and not the other way round.

Applying the Judicial Vicar’s logic, the bishops of Australia are asking those of their flock who want to seek the annulment of their marriage to first go and make a sin by obtaining a divorce, in the process provoking the judge to sin as well!

The problem with the Maltese Curia is that it is not only out of step with the situation that Maltese society finds itself today, but also out of synch with how the Catholic Church behaves in other countries.

Dare I suppose that when a person dies and is judged by the good Lord, he or she will be first asked to produce his or her passport and if the passport is Maltese, the Lord will take a good look at the stern warnings of Mgr Said Pullicino before pronouncing judgment?

On the other hand, if the person has an Australian passport, perhaps no such acid test will be necessary. What if the person has dual nationality: Maltese and Australian? I suppose it all depends where his or her divorce was decreed, of course! Such short-sighted pronouncements as those uttered by Mgr Said Pullicino are doing untold harm to the Catholic Church in Malta.

The Monsignor also arrogantly remarked that ‘the Archbishop cannot say anything different’ presumably because the Monsignor thinks he possesses the infallibility of the Pope in his interpretation of God’s will of which he is the sole purveyor.

I pity the Archbishop who wants to adopt a prudent approach to the divorce issue, even though he has declared the Church can never accept divorce. He now finds himself surrounded by medieval thinkers who cannot believe that the temporal power the Maltese Curia has enjoyed in the past is slowly slipping from its hands.

Threatening people with moral sanctions shows that some in the Curia have lost all sense of direction and have resorted to scraping the bottom of the barrel. I have no time for these short-sighted people.

Yet this is a test for the Archbishop as well. Unless Mgr. Said Pullicino is asked to resign from his post, the fundamentalist and conservative element in the Maltese Church will not just commit suicide: it will bring the whole edifice tumbling down with it.

Metaphorically, of course!