The parliament of the small European nation of Malta, which lies in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and North Africa, has passed legislation that likely escaped your attention. The legislation, the last of its kind in Europe, has made it legal to obtain a divorce in that country.

There are two things that amaze me about this news whisper. The first is the fact that there was (until recently) at least one radically progressive country left in the Western world that so believed in the sanctity and the relevance of marriage between a man and a woman, that divorce was—really—not an option.   It wasn’t that long ago in the early 1990’s when that was also true of Ireland which had the same radical perspective when I was there on my honeymoon. Since then, in November 1995 to be exact, the Irish legalized divorce with a constitutional amendment.

The second amazing thing about this event is the general reception of the news as being sensible and good, that the legal preservation of marriage was some relic of the past clinging to the island nation of Malta like a vestigial organ.

But I think it is sad, very sad.

To think about the matter of divorce is, for me, to think of a passage in the Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, only a few pages but an incredible pronouncement by God through His prophet to do what is right in many aspects of community – it is an amazing book. And there He says in exasperation, “I hate divorce!”. He goes on to admonish the men for the way they were dealing treacherously with the wife of their youth.

And it would be four centuries before He would speak again.

A quote from philosopher Peter Kreeft which has been the primary influence for this Neo-traditionalism blog is appropriate with regard to the legalization of divorce now everywhere in the Western world: When heresy becomes the orthodoxy of the future, tradition is the last remaining radicalism.