A comparative study of marriage values and divorce in Malta and five other catholic European countries through an analysis of data from the Maltese (1984, 1990, 1995,1999) and European (1981, 1990) Values Studies. It explores likely outcomes for the introduction of divorce in Malta on a western European model that fits most closely to the local situation. It examines Malta’s position within the catholic family of nations.
The paper tests the hypothesis of an expected relation between permissive divorce and secularisation, left political ideology, women’s participation in the labour market and decline in fertility. It examines the significance of a catholic family culture for the upkeep of a restrictive morality on marriage values and divorce.
What Maltese respondents think to be sufficient reasons for unsuccessful marriage and divorce - foremost domestic violence, unfaithfulness, failure in love and alcohol abuse - are compared to results obtained from other European societies having similar cultural, religious and historical traditions. The justification and support of divorce are differentiated by socio-demographic characteristics.
In the Euro-Mediterranean city-island Malta of late modernity, the observed shift in the values of marriage and the family, the secularisation of sexuality and an increase in the incidence of unsuccessful marriages is still accompanied by a strong Catholic family culture that resists the civil settlement of marriage failure by divorce. In contemporary Maltese society, divorce can possibly be legalised if the needs of a significant minority are given greater importance over the rule of a catholic majority which excludes them.