Cardinal encourages Malta to resist divorce, but questions immigrant detention policy
Feb 20, 2007
President Eddie Fenech Adami and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi were privately encouraged yesterday by Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino to resist mounting pressures by civil rights groups on matters concerning divorce, gay marriages and alternative family models.
(Malta Today, 18 February 2007) But in a mixed message for Lawrence Gonzi’s quintessentially Christian democrat government, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, and chairman of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, also indirectly chided Malta over its controversial policy of indiscriminately detaining irregular immigrants for a maximum of 18 months.
One of the most influential diplomats within the Holy See, Cardinal Martino was in Malta as a guest of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, where he delivered a keynote lecture on Peace, Violence and Religion s yesterday.
Afterwards he gave both the President and the Prime Minister a copy of his second edition publication of the ‘Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church’, written by himself.
“This is a book that should enlighten every statesman who reads it, not to mention the millions of Catholics around the world, that Christianity is a faith and does not bend,” he told this paper shortly before being hosted for lunch by President Fenech Adami at San Anton Palace.
“I understand that in Malta – just like any other modern nation – progress, wealth and wellbeing are dangerously leading many to fall victim to relativism. If we claim to belong to the Christian faith, then we must behave as Christians,” said Cardinal Martino.
Referring to the current controversy in Italy over proposed civil recognition of cohabiting gay couples, Cardinal Martino said he hoped that this would not happen.
Cardinal Martino’s comments in Malta yesterday found an echo in Pope Benedict XVI’s speech to the Apostolic Nuncios from Latin America at the Vatican.
The Pope stressed that “the family is showing clear signs of collapse under the pressure of lobby groups that have the ability to condition lawmakers.”
The family, Pope Benedict XVI said, “is born purely out of marriage, known to be a stable and loyal union between a man and a woman,” adding that “divorce and cohabitation are on the increase, while adultery is looked at with unjustifiable tolerance.”
In his comments to MaltaToday, Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino insisted that “Christians cannot be Christians just by name, or when we go to church. If we are Christians, we must know what the doctrine is and follow it,” he stressed.
Asked about the line that separates state from church, Cardinal Martino explained that civil rights will always be civil rights, however everyone must assume their own responsibilities towards themselves and society: “Abortion may be considered by many to be a civil right; but everyone would recognise murder as wrong and punishable. Is there any difference?”.
In his lecture yesterday Cardinal Martino also referred to the plight of irregular immigrants worldwide, and the causes of mass immigration, strongly hinting at his personal disagreement with the Maltese government’s policy to keep immigrants in detention.
“I have visited the open centres in Balzan and Marsa, and I have met people who have lost their pregnant wives and children at sea. I have witnessed the reality of a real brain drain from Africa,” he said, while adding that the European Union and rich countries must invert their policy of simple light-hearted charity towards poor African states.
“Europe sees the issue as a problem due to the numbers and simply calls it illegal immigration. I call it mass displacement of people who are looking for a better future and quality of life. When will we all learn that it could all stop if we look into the heart of the problem?” he concluded.
Cardinal encourages Malta to resist divorce, but questions immigrant detention policy