Home Affairs Minister Byron Camillieri has hit out at former PN minister and EU Commissioner Tonio Borg after he said a new equality law will prevent Church schools from teaching “the Catholic version” of subjects like biology and history.

Borg, currently an adviser to the PN, protested an equality bill currently being discussed in Parliament, insisting it would infringe on the European Convention on Human Rights, which says that member states must respect parents’ rights to ensure that their children’s education aligns with their religious and philosophical beliefs.

“The bills only leave so-called religious schools to freely run the teaching of religion; but as those who govern us should know, Catholic  schools are not so styled because they teach religion, after all, even state schools are constitutionally obliged to do so, but because they provide a Catholic vision of the entire gamut of subjects,” Borg wrote in a Times of Malta opinion piece.

“Certainly, there is a Catholic vision of history, and one relating to philosophy, ethics or biology. Interfering in a Church school’s curriculum when it comes to providing a particular faith-based education in all subjects is also an infringement of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Minister Camillieri dismissed his claims in a Facebook post, saying that we can’t go back to “saying the earth is flat.”

“To instil fear in people in the wake of laws that promote more equality, former Minister Tonio Borg, now the advisor to Opposition Leader Adrian Delia, wants us to believe that there is a Catholic version of biology and a scientific one. No, theres only one version.”

Camillieri accused him of fear mongering against progress for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Why is there this fear every time we progress to treat people equally? This is what happened with divorce, this is what happened when we wanted to give rights to LGBTQ+ people. They have even told us that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day wont exist anymore.”

“It really angers me when some use Church schools to instil fear in thousands of families of changes that we need to implement so that no-one feels discriminated against.”