Let us examine these cases. A parish priest refuses to take a booking for a church hall from a group of witches. The second case concerns the director of a retreat centre organising a live-in conference for couples. The venue offers double, twin, and single bedded rooms.

The director, following Church teaching, would require that double bedded rooms were only available to married couples. An unmarried heterosexual couple and/or a homosexual couple insists that they be given a double room like the married couples. The director refuses.

A priest, while preaching on Sunday, says that homosexual acts are considered to be sinful. The head of a Church school or care home run by the Church would place crucifixes and religious pictures in the classes, rooms or common areas. An atheist working or living in such places would approach the head demanding that these religious symbols be removed. The head, quite naturally, refuses.

The witches feel discriminated; the unmarried couples feel outraged, a homosexual listening to the sermon or the atheist living in the home run by the Church can feel offended.

They perhaps stage a protest or write to the newspapers. Will the matter stop there?

If the EU commission gets its way the retreat director, the parish priest, the preacher and the head of school can be accused of breaking the law. The commission is proposing the Equal Treatment Directive designed to ban discrimination across the 27-member bloc on the grounds of sexual orientation, age, religious belief and disability.

The provisions of the directive would extend beyond employment law and the provision of goods and services and also would regulate social conduct.

Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency, wants to introduce the directive this year. If this happens then it becomes law in all EU member states. This is easier said than done.

There is, for example, opposition from Germany, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Malta. For the proposal to be adopted there needs to be unanimous consent; something not easily achieved. Besides, the EU ethos is one that encourages consensus. Most probably by the end of the story, the directive that will be adopted will be quite different from what was proposed if enough governments, NGOs and individuals protest against it.

The Bishops of England and Wales together with the Bishops of Scotland have just submitted their reaction to the British government regarding the Equal Treatment Directive. They commend the moral principle underlying the directive as this is in line with the dignity of each person "made in the image of God".

However, the bishops note that the way the directive is written could force Christians to act against their consciences and it could become an "instrument of oppression." Instead of eliminating discrimination, the directive can be the source of new forms of discrimination as it could stifle religious liberty and freedom of expression. "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."

The Church is asking for this in line with the rights of Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Expression under Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

I already noted further up that Malta is one of the countries with reservations on this proposed directive.

Since the European Parliament will have an important role to play I ask our MEPs to declare their position on the proposal.

One hopes that none of our MEPs will take a position that respects the wishes of particular parliamentary groups but not the values of the Maltese people.

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