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Fenech Adami’s ‘unwarranted pressure’ turned divorce into political showdown
Catholic priest’s missive says President and cabinet minister’s pressure on divorce forced PN's hand in taking anti-divorce stand.
26 February 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
Catholic priest and theology lecturer Rene Camilleri has warned the Church over sitting on its laurels if divorce does not find the backing of the majority in a popular referendum.
Fr Rene Camilleri, who is against the introduction of divorce, said the Church had “to come to its senses and put its house in order” on its pastoral response to marital breakdown and the way it handles annulment cases.
He also accused Eddie Fenech Adami and Austin Gatt, without referring to them by name, of having put “unwarranted pressure” on the Nationalist party to take a stand against divorce – which signalled the start of a series of U-turns on whether MPs or a referendum should decide the fate of divorce in Malta.
“At the start of this saga both parties were pondering on one and the same position, namely to let the people decide… for fear of losing votes and for mere opportunism, they never pronounced their belief in the regard.
“What I believe changed the scenario at the eleventh hour was the unexpected and unwarranted pressure exerted by a former President and by a Cabinet member to bring the party in government to change direction.”
In a missive of disillusionment he wrote on The Times, he predicted that the failure to get divorce introduced by referendum would only leave the government ‘satisfied’ and the Church happy at having “slammed the door in the face of the knocking devil.”
He said he feared this would only expose the institutions of the country as to their self-serving mission. In a veiled reference to claims by the anti-divorce movement that marital breakdown was not as serious as perceived, Camilleri said “those who suffer will always remain with us and marriages, though probably not to the extent some are trying to make us believe, will continue to break down.”
He said it would be sad if the Church “were not to come to its senses to put its house in order” on marriage preparation and reforming the way its tribunals handle annulment cases.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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eddie trid tkun ta ezempju biex tati ezempju. uliedek taf xamlu biex hadu idivorsju.
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Lets face it the parlament is being run by the church and the people in it are priests. Which is wrong, church and politics do not mix.
Jon Sciberras •
About time too !!!!
Albert Zammit •
I think it is absolutely DISGUSTING for people like SCHLANGINA, etec... to attack Fr Rene. Fr Rene is well-known for being a very practical priest, with a strong connection with common people, and one who FEELS for the people. He is not a 'self-proclaimed theologian' because in fact, he IS a theologian. He studied in Rome and took his time, and did not allow anyone to hurry him up in his theological preparation. SCHLANGINA attacks Fr Rene, claiming that the priest is willingly trying to mix people up, weaken the teachings of the Church, and that he is not a true theologian. Nothing is further from the truth. Probably, the truth is that SCHLANGINA is one of these people who are totally blinded by whatever they 'believe' in, simply because it would rock their boat if their belief is somehow questioned.
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Belgium: From Prince-Bishop to Napoleon's concordat
The Church ruled over many European territories, not just the Papal States. There were dozens of prince-bishops in Germany and even some in the surrounding countries: the picturesque little town of Dinant in modern Belgium was ruled by Prince-Bishop of Liège. Where a cleric reigned, a concordat between the pope and the ruler was not necessary.
Convention and Accord between Pope Leo XII and William I, King of Belgium and the Netherlands (1827)
King William I of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands found himself in an increasingly insecure position. Because he favoured the Dutch language and Calvinism of his Northern Provinces he was viewed with suspicion by his Catholic French-speaking subjects in the Southern Provinces. This concordat, concluded shortly before they rebelled against him, appears to be an attempt to buy the support of the Church.
http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showsite.php?org_id=2151
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Netherlands - Belgium - Luxembourg
The 1827 concordat contains one of the last examples of a treaty curse against anyone who dares to infringe it. Pope Leo XII closes it by threatening “the wrath of the Almighty God and of His Holy Apostles Peter and Paul”. In spite of this dire warning, the war and final separation of Belgium from the Netherlands in 1831 made it a dead letter almost as soon as it was signed.
The treaty curse has a long tradition. In Assyria the threat against anyone breaking a treaty was backed up by a graphic demonstration on an animal. In a vassal treaty with a North Syrian ruler, King Assur-nirari VI (753-746 BC) warned him:
This head is not the [cut off] head of a ram, but the head of Mati'ilu ... should Mati'ilu break these agreements, his head should be cut off, just as this head of the ram has been cut off.
Nor was the punishment confined to the ruler. His city was razed, burnt and sown with salt and brimstone. This was threatened in Deuteronomy 29 22-25 by the Lord, but it was also actual punishment for breach of treaty by the Assyrians and their neighbours.
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Italy
In 1871 Italy took over the pope's kingdom, the Papal States, but a struggle is still going on between the modern Italian nation and the papal enclave that remains within it, the “State of the Vatican City”. This is why it has been claimed that “Italy is not one state, but two”.
The Vatican was eager to keep the favourable terms offered by the concordat signed by Mussolini. In 1984 it managed to avoid having the concordat scrapped and instead, it was merely revised.
The next move was to have a cardinal design the law that assigns taxes to the various denominations. This eight per thousand tax, whose its proportional representation and default rules combine to give the lion's share to the Catholic Church.
Then in 2007 the Vatican headed off the attempt to introduce an omnibus religion freedom law and insisted that any other religious bodies sharing in the tax revenues be individually approved. This has the effect of restricting their number, most recently in August 2010, when the Italian parliament the voted to deny income tax revenue to Islam.
By blocking the religious freedom law the Catholic Chuch has managed to safeguard the huge tax payments it receives every year.
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These fireworks are let off in the square in front of the Cathedral of Santiago every year on the eve of July 25th, when the king offers Spain to its patron, St. James. In 2004 the Archbishop used the occasion to denounce the new socialist Prime Minister Zapatero and said that the Church had every right to interfere in national politics when this involved “the salvation of souls”. [1]
Of course, the Church has the democratic right, like everyone else, to speak out in the pulpit or newspapers. However, he seemed to be defending the tactic whereby the Church calls on Catholic MPs to vote down legislation it doesn't like. When it does this, the leftist politician, Gaspar Llamazares, accuses the Church of “delegitimising parliament”. [2]
http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showsite.php?org_id=845
Pauline Moran •
Schlangina...professuri tat tahwid inthom u l-knisja taghna. Mahhkom biex taraw kif ser izzommu n-nies taht l-umbrella konservattiva taghkom milli thalluhom jiddeciedi kif irridu huma!!! Alla dejjem halla lin nies jiddeciedu huma, qatt ma ndahal lill hadd, fil fatt isejhilha FREE WILL!!
Pero inthom TIPPUPAW sidirkhom quddiem in nies biex tbellawa lil poplu li taghkom xi jedd Alla biex tiddeciedu f'ismu, meta dawn kollha hmerijiet u tawwieg tal verita. Gesu meta qal "dak li jaqqad Alla ma jifirdu hadd" ma kienx qed jirrieferi ghaz zwieg, ja jpokrieti, izda ghal ghaqda bejn il gnus tad dinja...Inthom il vera ipokriti ghax dejjem hawn Malta ppruvajtu toholqu il firda!!! ID DIVORZJU huwa dritt u mhux IMPONIMENT. La jezizti is separazzjoni ( li diga huwa firda matrimonjali) allura ID DIVORZJU ma ghandux ghaldejn ma jidholx!!!
Donella Agius •
Fr Rene Camilleri is a self proclaimed theologian. A truly catholic theologian is one who first believes in the catholic faith and is in union with the church´s teaching.
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I was relieved to read the previous comments, because I thought that I was the only person who could not understand the theologian, Fr. Rene Camilleri. I recall one definition stating that a theologian is one who make simple things complicated in order to justify his existence.
Fr. Camilleri calls "unwarranted" the satement made by Dr Fenech Adami. However, Dr. Fenech Adami made one statement and was understood by everyone.
On the other hand, Fr Rene Camilleri is always talking, or writing, and no one knows what he says or what he means.
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Struggling to understand exactly what Fr Rene Camilleri wants here. To me he sounds like a man who understands very well which is the right way forward, but does not have the courage to take a strong and definite stand.
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Another demonstration of intellectual clarity and sensibility from Fr Rene'. I'm in favour of divorce and will be voting Yes, but I must say that people like Fr Rene' are a rare species in our country.
Luke Camilleri •
Mhux kullhadd bhal Eddie bi tfal tieghi iggibu l-Annulamenti - Divorzju Imbierek Malti !
u Mhux ahjar Eddie Fenech Adami jmur jara issibx dawkLm10 miljun lira l'hemm u ghaxar miljun lira l'hawn li ma kienx jimpurtah meta jinnegozzja il-bejgh tal-assi tal pajjiz ( mhux tieghu)?
U Austin Gatt, mhux iehor, mhux ahjar jara kif iggib lura dik il-freebee ta' bicca art tiswa il-miljun li offra lit-Tecom ta' Dubai bhala bonus mas-shares tal go? Illum issaqsih xi haga il-Austin Arroganti Gatt, jghidlek mur ghand Tonio Fenech ghax hu responsabli issa!
Jeccellaw fil IPPOKREZIJA dawn in-nies ,
Donella Agius •
U dan Fr Rene Camilleri kif qed jaghmel lilu innifsu qisu xi hadd infallibbli! Minn banda jghid li hu kontra d-divorzju, u imbaghad bi kliemu jimmina lil kull minn hu kontra d-divorzju. Ifakkarni hafni fil-Modernisti li kienu komuni fil-bidu tas-seklu tmientax li l-qaddis Papa Piju X tant ikkumbatta. Dawn il-modernista kienu jghidu xi haga tajba fost affarijiet ohra zbaljati bl-iskop li jhawdu n-nies u idghajfu t-taghlim tal-Knisja.
