Had Jesus not resurrected, he would be turning in his grave. That was the thought that went through my head as flabbergasted I listened to a report on the local news on TVM on Sunday morning.
We were told that a report by Discern, the Curia’s Institute for Research, claimed that the State was directly or indirectly weakening the family by financially aiding one-parent families and cohabitees.
That’s right, let’s punish the children of a parent who has left a marriage, not to mention the abandoned partner, who probably believed in lifelong marriage as much as the people who are so smugly trying to make their lives even more difficult. Let the children of widows and widowers be treated differently from the lucky kids who still have their mum and dad around.
Who cares about the children of cohabitees? Do they not deserve a family? Who are the bigoted people responsible for this report? Are these people Christians?
According to what I heard, the report claimed that directly or indirectly financially aiding ‘alternative’ families was not conforming to the government’s stated aims of strengthening the family.
I could not believe that the Archbishop had sanctioned this report. It was too shocking. I was beginning to think I had misheard, but the claim was repeated a bit later.
Trying to see what else had been said, I tried to access the report on the Discern Website, but the report was not available. I also tried ringing Discern, for a couple of days and got not reply, and had the same problem with the TVM newsroom, so I skimmed the papers for more information.
Father Charles Tabone was quoted as saying that “speeding up the process of canonical annulments is deemed a pressing issue” by several of the 45 (nameless) local opinion leaders. It seems that “What God has put together let no man put asunder”, is interpreted differently if sanctioned by Churchmen.
The Church does not allow divorce but there will be more annulments!
However, I could not find any reference to the statements reported on TVM. On the contrary Fr Tabone was reported as saying: “The Church must show great understanding with those who hold alternate viewpoints from it, especially if these are victims of circumstance.”
This did not quite tie in with what I heard on the local TV news. Did TVM get it so badly wrong?
When I eventually got hold of the report, I found that “Some interviewees opined that the present structure of both taxation and social services favours – thus, indirectly it can promote – lone-parenthood in preference to the married state.”
And “the State’s assistance encompasses ‘unions’ that do not fall under the concept of a healthy family... Hence indirectly is supporting alternative models viewed as unhealthy, such as, cohabitation and lone-parenthood.”
So TVM had not got it wrong after all, but why did everyone else ignore it?

Credit where it’s due
I am getting more disillusioned day by day. And no doubt there will be those who will tell me to get lost if I don’t like it here. But, from mail I receive I believe that there are more tolerant and fair-minded Maltese people who believe like me that this country deserves better.
Recently, I read that the only politician who took an interest in the plight of a 92-year-old lady who is being ‘blitzed’ and bullied out of her home was the very same who has been so constantly maligned, Opposition leader Alfred Sant.
Yet, despite the reams of negative text about him almost daily, when he took an interest in an elderly lady who is being bullied out of her home by developers and the police and he showed up MEPA officials for the unfeeling bureaucrats they are, not a pip.
Except for a gentleman (a health and safety representative) in Northern Ireland and a couple from Scotland who were here on holiday. The Irish gentleman questioned why the Officers from the Health and Safety Authority took so long to visit the premises and why no one from the government had shown an interest in the old lady’s plight, when they are so keen to have their photo’s taken with old ladies when it is politically opportune.
I have often written, albeit elsewhere, about the appalling way people who have new developments built around their homes are treated, and I had regularly questioned the role of the Health & Safety Authority in such cases, only to be told that that authority is only responsible for workers health and safety and not the general public.
There had been a number of cases where people died through builders’ negligence some years ago and I believe some are still waiting for justice and closure in the law courts. At the time of the fatal accidents there were a lot of people involved in one of our local customs “passing the buck”. Somehow no one was directly responsible.
We had plenty of people making excuses, but no one apportioning responsibility.
We had a lot of articles by prospective parliamentary candidate, Robert Musemeci, chairman of the Building Industry Consultative Council (BICC), calming the waters and saying that reforms were in the pipeline. They were a long time coming and we still do not know how to ensure responsibility and prevent such tragedies and how rogue developers will be dealt with. Until recently, I still got mail from the people who had been affected by the tragedies, and as far as I am aware they are still waiting for a court decision (the case has been trailing for years) and meanwhile, I have not seen any change in the way construction sites are being handled.
The BICC Board lays down the guiding strategy to secure the right environment for our building industry. Since Mr Musemeci is hoping to represent us in Parliament, I look forward to his being as outspoken on this problem as he has been on party mudslinging.