A Curia spokesman yesterday defended the position paper on conversion therapy issued on Saturday by the Church Commission, arguing that it in no way equates same-sex orientation as a disease or homosexuality to paedophilia.
“To state that is irresponsible or at best misinformed”.
This was in response to statements made yesterday by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, during his political speech in Zurrieq.
Dr Muscat said that the Church Commission had equated gay persons with sick people needing therapy. “One of the most fundamental European values is the right of association and it is unbelievable that in this day and age we still have people in Malta who believe homosexuality is an illness and homosexuals need therapy and, even more, that equate homosexuality with paedophilia. This takes us back to the Dark Ages”.
The Church had commissioned a group of experts to draft the position paper. The experts were: Reverend Professor Manuel Agius, Dean of the Faculty of Law Kevin Aquilina, Dr Austin Bencini, Judge Giovanni Bonello, Dr Nadia Delicata, Reverend Professor George Grima, and Reverend Professor Paul Galea.
The group of experts concluded, in their report, that the legislation, which is being proposed on the affirmation of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, raises a number of serious ethical and legal issues.
“Rather than fostering a ‘culture of dignity’ in which every citizen, irrespective of sexual orientation, lives in an inclusive culture of recognition between human beings, the underlying philosophy of the proposed bill promotes discrimination rather than inclusion, disrespect for personal autonomy to exercise one’s own lawful rights rather than the defence of human dignity, distrust in the accountability of the professional bodies rather than the protection of their independence. Unfortunately, the bill seeks to address the needs of a particular vulnerable group who very often do find it socially hard and painful in trying to deal with a fundamental dimension of their own self-identity at the expense of exposing professional people to the grave risk of criminal action against them”.