MPs’ clients said Church tribunal advised them to ‘change lawyer’

Two Labour MPs said they have been informed by clients they are no longer suitable to represent them in the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, where the Catholic Church holds hearings for marriage annulments. The Tribunal has said no such decision has been taken.

Owen Bonnici and Labour deputy leader Anglu Farrugia both told MaltaToday their clients were informed they should change their lawyers, in echoes of the suspension of pro divorce figurehead Deborah Schembri, a lawyer who was suspended from the tribunal at the start of the referendum campaign.

The news comes in the wake of claims by the Curia’s pro vicar general Anton Gouder, who claimed the Church needs to do its own soul searching after the referendum which approved a historic divorce law in Malta.

The chancellor of the Tribunal, Joanne Camilleri, said no such decision had been taken. “If and when any decision in this regard is taken this will be communicated to the persons concerned,” she told MaltaToday. When asked again about clients who been specifically told to look for a new lawyer, the Chancellor responded: "No. Such decisions are always communicated in writing."

But Owen Bonnici said his client had specifically asked a receptionist whether he was still eligible to represent her, given that he had been a part of the divorce campaign.

“My client said the receptionist opened a file and then told her, ‘no – change the lawyer’. She then told her that everything would stay as things are for the time being, until a decision is taken,” Bonnici said.

“It’s not something I’m taking lightly because it’s tantamount to pressure on an MP on the way he votes, and I will choose my duty over my daily bread in this case.”

Anglu Farrugia told MaltaToday he was not able to obtain either confirmation or denial of whether he had been removed from the Ecclesiastic Tribunal’s album.

“I was told earlier today that I had been removed from the Ecclesiastic Tribunal without my knowledge. When I called, I was told that I was still on the list but I was not given any further details as the Monsignor was not present. I do not know to which Monsignor they were referring to.”

[Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino is the Judicial Vicar of the metropolitan tribunal, while Mgr Louis Camilleri is a canonical advisor at the tribunal].

“I understand that if I were to be removed from the Ecclesiastic Tribunal’s album, I would receive notification in writing,” Farrugia said. “I was also told that Owen Bonnici was also removed from the album without his knowledge.”

Judicial vicar Mgr Arthur Said Pullicino had sounded a warning to members of the bar and the judiciary to be objectors on divorce proceedings. In a homily for the mass that inaugurated the Church Tribunal’s forensic year, Mgr Said Pullicino warned that those who “cooperate” in the introduction of divorce, including judges who apply the law, would be “committing a grave sin”.

“Whoever cooperates in any way in the introduction of divorce, who applies the law and who seeks recourse to it, though not the innocent party, would be breaking God’s law and so would be committing a grave sin.”

The Apostolic Letter Justi Judicis of 1988 specifies that exclusion from the ‘Album’ can be justified in the cases of “those who agree with or are active in associations or movements which promote ways of thinking or acting that are contrary to the faith and the Catholic teachings about morals, or defend proposals and advice about civil order which go against the precepts of natural and Christian law.”

The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura laid down the “norm” that “according to Canon 1483, the advocate must be of good repute... The proper treatment of marriage nullity cases presupposes the right doctrine about marriage and its indissolubility, which right doctrine also requires that it be manifested in life. “

Additionally, Pope John Paul II had addressed the Roman Rota on the 22 January 2002, saying that legal workers in the civil field should avoid being personally involved in anything that could imply cooperation towards divorce.