Friday, July 3, 2009

For Indian Church homosexuality is not a crime but cannot become a “social norm”

Nirmala Carvalho

Delhi High Court decriminalises homosexuality by repealing statute in Indian Penal Code that defined it as a crime. Harsh criticism comes from India’s Muslims who accuse the government of giving in to Western decadence. The spokesman for the India Church says that trying to redefine the family will undermine the bases of society.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – The Indian “Church agrees that it is a right and appropriate to remove the stigma of ‘criminality’ associated with homosexuality. At the same time, it cannot agree that it is a socially normal form of behaviour,” said Fr Babu Joseph, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), in an interview with AsiaNews.

He was responding to a decision by the Delhi's High Court which declared a statute in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional, thus paving the way for the decriminalisation of homosexuality between consenting adults. For their part Hindu and Muslim religious leaders reacted negatively to the court’s decision, saying it is a betrayal of Indian culture.

Full story here:

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=15678&size=A

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