EU ruling worry for clergy over same sex marriage

http://www.churchnewspaper.com/news.php?read=on&number_key=5802&title=EU%20ruling%20worry%20for%20clergy%20over%20same%20sex%20marriage

[The Church of England Newspaper] January 13, 2006--Church of England clergy will not be allowed a right of conscience to opt out of taking gay weddings, should Parliament enact legislation and join Belgium and the Netherlands in permitting same-sex marriage, a European Union report recommends. The controversial ruling states that the rights of access to abortion, euthanasia, birth control and marriage trumps the right of religious conscientious objection. Authored by the EU’s Network of Independent Experts on Human Rights, it says that where “euthanasia or assisted suicide are partially decriminalised, the right to religious conscientious objection, while it should be recognised to the medical doctors asked to perform euthanasia or to assist a person in committing suicide, should not be exercised in a way which leads to depriving any person from the possibility of exercising effectively his or her rights as guaranteed under the applicable legislation”.