Malta's New Prime Minister Seeking To Amend Concordat With Vatican On Marriages

Earlier this month, in Malta the Labour Party for the first time in 15 years won control of the government. The new Prime Minister is Joseph Muscat. (Deutsche Welle). The Times of Malta reports today that Muscat will be seeking talks with the Vatican to revise Malta's 1993 Concordat with the Vatican on "The Recognition of Civil Effects to Canonical Marriages and to the Decisions of the Ecclesiastical Authorities and Tribunals About the Same Marriages" (full text).  The prime minister is proposing reforms that will make the civil courts supreme in regard to marriage law. (Malta has 10 separate Concordats with the Vatican on various topics.) Malta's Archbishop Paul Cremona says that the Church is available for such talks. The Prime Minister said that the government also has a mandate to legislate civil unions.