Bishop: It’s okay for PHL to be the only country without divorce

A senior official of the Catholic Church said it would be okay for the Philippines to have the distinction of being the only country in the world that does not have a divorce law. In an article posted on the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) website, Archbishop emeritus Oscar Cruz said “the anti-divorce stance in the Philippines only confirms that Filipinos know what’s right and wrong." Cruz heads the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) national appellate marriage tribunal. Last weekend, the overwhelmingly Catholic state of Malta in the Mediterranean voted in favor of allowing divorce in a non-binding referendum. If the Maltese parliament approves a divorce law, the Philippines will become the only country, aside from the Vatican, where marriage dissolution is illegal. The 306,000 mainly Catholic voters were asked whether the Maltese government should introduce divorce to couples who have been separated for four years. However, Cruz said the results of the referendum in Malta “do not necessarily denote what is right." “Not all that the majority says is right," Cruz added. - VVP, GMA News