Politics is the art of the possible
Dr. Anton Buttigieg, B.A. LL.D. M.P. (1912-1983), was in those days Minister for Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. He was not only a politician, but a well-known poet as well. He was destined to become Malta’s second President of the Republic (1976-1981).
We met at 26th June 1973 at the Speaker’s office during a session of Parliament.
‘You should look at the laws in particular. Canon Law is still law for Maltese Catholics. If they get a civil marriage abroad the church does not recognize it.
Once you are baptized as a Catholic it makes you a Catholic for your whole life. Non-Catholics are not allowed to baptize a Catholic child.
You have to undergo a religious examination before you are allowed to enter University and before you are allowed to marry.
The Bishop is above the law.
The cemeteries are controlled by the Church. Always there is a priest administering them, even when the State pays for them completely.
Many antiquities belong to the Church.
Canon Law is against the Constitution. It is against the freedom of conscience. An atheist who is baptized cannot marry.
In the fight of the MLP against the Church Gozo was worse than Malta.’
On my question why civil marriage was not introduced by the present Labour Government Dr. Buttigieg replied: ‘You have to be very careful, otherwise they’ll start raising hell again. Look what they did when we passed the homosexuality bill.’
I wondered why civil marriage was not included in the 1969 treaty. ‘Politics is the art of the possible. We could not let Malta go bankrupt under another Nationalist administration only because we wanted civil marriage.’
NOTE: Less than two years later, after the constitutional changes of December 1974, civil marriage was yet introduced in Malta.
I was quite impressed by this gentleman. To my regrets we never met again. However, I noticed him in August 1974 at the Phoenicia Hotel in an animated conversation with a certain Mr. Forace, who might have been the Maltese High Commissioner in Australia. I could not help overhearing parts of this quite interesting conversation, in which two colleagues were grumbling about their boss. I did not think it proper to make any notes about the contents of this conversation.
(originally posted on Facebook on 25th August 2023)