WATCH | Gozo Bishop under fire for condemning childcare centres

Gozo Bishop under fire for condemning childcare centres

Gozo Bishop Anton Teuma is under fire for condemning childcare centres as places parents send their children “because they have something to do.”

Teuma claimed that if babies are treated as “objects” their parents will throw them in childcare centres.

He was speaking in the Ta' Pinu Church during a special mass for expectant parents.

Parliamentary Secretary for Equality Rebecca Buttigieg questioned what authority Teuma had to make such a condemnation. Buttigieg clarified that her daughter, who is almost two years old, is one of thousands who attend a childcare centre.

“The claim that those who use childcare are abandoning their children is not right,” Buttigieg said, as she described free childcare centres as a socialist measure that helped women gain their financial independence, as well as a key part of children’s formative education.