EU equality law is an ‘instrument of oppression’, Roman Catholic bishops warn

August 6, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

www.telegraph.co.uk

A proposed European Union equality law has been branded an “instrument of oppression” by Britain’s Roman Catholic leaders.

The bishops of England, Wales and Scotland denounced the European Commission’s planned Equal Treatment Directive as “wholly unacceptable” because, they said, it would force Christians to act against their consciences.

The directive is aimed at harmonising and enforcing a ban across the 27-member bloc on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, age, religious belief and disability outside the scope of employment law.

But the bishops say the directive will simply have the result of sharply curtailing the rights of religious liberty and freedom of expression.

They say they will be powerless to stop witches from hiring out church property, for instance, or from insisting that people at Church events behave in a way consistent with Christian teaching.

Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, the general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said that the Church “recognises that groups which do not agree with its teaching should be free to organise themselves and to propagate their views as they wish”.

“What the Church is seeking from this directive is simply the right to maintain its own teaching and activities with integrity, according to its own ethos,” he said in a written submission to a public consultation.

He said that the organisers of a Catholic conference, for instance, would be legally obliged to make double rooms available to gay and unmarried couples as well as for married heterosexuals.

He said: “At this point the EU would effectively be dictating to religious bodies what their faith does or does not require – a wholly unacceptable position.” Read full article…