God is against divorce, the archpriest of Zebbug would have us know. In order to ram the message home he put up an enormous billboard on the Żebbuġ church parvis with the words: "Divorce: God doesn't want it".
It would be funny if it were not so sad. Empathy is clearly not Fr Daniel Cardona’s strong point – neither is logic. When contacted by journalists for his comments about the billboard and why it was put up, he stated that Catholics could only accept divorce if it were proven that it would benefit the common good.
Well, seeing as there has still been no official discussion about it in Parliament and the experts still need to have their say, why has he pre-empted the outcome and put up that obnoxious billboard? What will he do if the statistics and research actually do show that divorce will benefit many families – will he put up a billboard saying “Divorce: God has changed his mind”?
It is clear that the Zebbug archpriest has decided to dabble in politics. He fancies himself a modern-day Robin Hood, saving his poor misguided parishioners (including the ones who do not believe in God, fancy that!) from the ravages of divorce.
Well, Fr Cardona has it wrong. Divorce is not what destroys families. By the time a couple gets divorced their relationship is already irretrievably broken. Divorce just lets them move on and gives them a second chance.
Let me give Fr Cardona some ideas as to what to put on that great big billboard of his – issues that really DO break up families, but that most likely he will not have the cojones to talk about.
“God wants you to go home and spend time with your families!” – that’s a great idea as a slogan, placed strategically in the middle of a square full of clubs and bars where locals spend endless hours chatting, smoking, drinking and oftentimes gambling. Fr Cardona should descend on them like the wrath of God and tell them to go home to their wives and children. After all if partners do not spend a lot of time together, they are bound to drift apart, so the billboard would be totally in keeping with his stated aim of wanted to help the family.
Another good one would be “God wants you to stop wasting money on alcohol and cigarettes. Save it for your kids!” Financial problems are often cited as the cause of marital strife, so the archpriest would be on to a good thing if he manages to convince his parishioners not to waste money.
“Stop gossiping and destroying people’s reputations!” would also be spot on, targeted to his faithful flock as they leave the church. Several relationships have been destroyed because of malicious tongues. Fr Cardona should definitely do something about it.
“Idolatry: God does not want it!” would be particularly relevant in the middle of the parish feast. Related billboards could trumpet “This is a religious feast not a pagan festival!” or “Put that beer down and get into church!” I am sure that in the middle of all that revelry there would be a couple of illicit flirtations going on, if not worse – no doubt Fr Cardona, in his zeal to see God’s will done, is planning to do something about that.
Those are the kinds of billboard that are needed in Zebbug and indeed all over Malta and Gozo.
God is not a legislator. God is concerned with the moral code and not the legal code. I am sure that if Fr Cardona had taken this into consideration, his billboards would have dealt with issues such as adultery, honesty, forgiveness and love. These are issues that make or break a marriage and not the introduction of new legislation in the country.