VALETTA, December 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Maltese government has dismissed the campaign of a maverick secularist, Emmanuel Bezzina, to legalize divorce. Malta, the EU’s smallest nation and one of the world’s last holdouts in defending marriage, family and the unborn, has retained in law protections for married couples and families. Divorce and abortion are outlawed in Malta, and are likely to remain so, according to a government minister.
“He doesn’t have his finger on the pulse. People are very afraid” by divorce, said Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, junior minister for justice and home affairs.
Bezzina, who says he wants to divorce his own wife, has become a one-man crusade for the opening of Malta to the full agenda of the sexual revolution, having founded a political party dedicated to legalizing abortion and homosexuality and abolishing Catholic influence in Malta.
Bezzina is the founder of the Malta Divorce Movement, the Association for Men’s Rights and the Family Rights Association. Bezzina also founded the Alpha Liberal Party, which has as its slogan, “For Freedom, Democracy and a Secular Malta.” Bezzina’s crusade is the subject of jokes in Maltese government, but is taken seriously in Brussels where he went to complain to MEP’s of his country’s “backward” dedication to the rights of the family and the sanctity of life.
The Maltese have seen the social and moral decline of the nations that have adopted the modern ideologies and want none of it the minister said. “It isn’t difficult to understand. Most people in Malta have been brought up in the Roman Catholic religion. They feel that divorce isn’t something that helps the family unit,” said Mifsud Bonnici.
Even Bezzina admits that with the public rejection of his ideology, and what he calls the “disaffection” of young people from politics, a referendum to legalize divorce would likely fail. He has taken his campaign to the EU hoping it can force the tiny nation to capitulate.
Malta, however is unlikely to bow to EU pressure soon. The country included a clause in its EU accession treaty that excludes it from any future EU rules on abortion. The overwhelmingly Catholic country has proved itself a stalwart opponent of both EU and United Nations’ efforts to bring the country in line with their ruling leftist ideologies.
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