It’s official, we now stand alone

Maltese vote yes to divorce, PH only country in the world with no divorce.

Citizens of the Catholic Mediterranean state of Malta have voted in favor of legalizing divorce, announced Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzo on Sunday, May 29, reports ABS-CBN News. Malta is the only other country apart from the Philippines that bans divorce. It is also the last European country where divorce is considered illegal.

On Saturday, 306,000 of mostly Catholic voters were asked in a non-binding referendum whether the parliament should introduce a divorce law after four years of separation. Legal separation, though widespread in Europe, presents many challenges in re-marrying, reports the article.

Gonzi, who campaigned against divorce, said, “This is not the result I wished for, but the will of the people has to be respected and the parliament should enact a law for the introduction of divorce.” He added it was now up to the parliament to legalize the dissolution of marriage.

Pro-divorce leader of the opposition Labor party, Joseph Muscat said in The Guardian that a New Malta had been born. According to the article, Muscat is confident that the anti-divorce law would not thwart the will of the people. The Roman Catholic Church, meanwhile, did not participate in Malta’s referendum. However, Malta Archbishop Paul Cremona warned churchgoers that their decision was a choice between building and destroying family values.

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It’s a good thing my previous post was so timely 😀 Now for my thoughts.

As i had stated earlier my stand is against divorce however, I will not begrudge a sovereign nation of their right to decide whats best for their country and themselves as Malta has displayed here. (See, that is an example of the separation of Church and State).

Which leads me to wonder, what effects will the stigma of the only country which outlaws divorce have on the Philippines?

Personally, I think this will make pro-divorce legislation in the future more difficult not only because of the meddling of the Church but with the stigma earlier stated as well (Which is not how legislation should be argued).

No doubt some high horse will get off on that piece of information extracting some twisted form of prestige from it. Though there really is none offered in the title.

Especially considering that no divorce doesn’t necessarily mean a healthy respect for the difficulties and intricacies of marriage. As demonstrated by our populace (and my previous post), it seems no one takes it seriously enough even without the safety chute of divorce available. They still manage to find ways of getting out of it.

Sometimes I think whether or not it really means anything to be married. I guess I can be considered as a romantic for continuing to think that there might still be people in the world who think marriage is important.