The Church against the Indian law criminalizing gay people

The Supreme Court of India canceled the decision of the High Court of Delhi in July 2009 which decriminalized homosexual intercourse, thereby upholding the constitutional validity of section 377 of the Criminal Code and accepting the complaints of a large part of the population and many Hindu cultural and religious associations.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, has protested against the decision, saying that “the Catholic Church has never been opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality, because we have never seen gay people as criminals. As Christians we express our full respect for homosexuals. The Catholic Church is opposed to the legalization of gay marriage, but teaches that homosexuals have the same dignity of every human being“.

On the other hand, in Catholic Italy homosexuality was decriminalized back in 1866, well before Anglican Great Britain (1967), Communist East Germany (1968), Lutheran Norway (1972 ) and Israel (1988). The Catholic Catechism condemns the “sin” itself, defining “homosexual acts” as “intrinsically disordered” but teaches that we accept the “sinner”, in fact homosexuals “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

Although we can only look with sadness at the decision of the Supreme Court of India, we are glad to learn that, a few days after the positive news of natural families in Croatia, the Australian High Court has unanimously banned same-sex marriages, a few days after the first few were celebrated in the capital Canberra. In Italy, on the other hand, the Regional Council of Emilia-Romagna has denied any de facto equalization between heterosexual and homosexual couple, rejecting two amendments proposed by Franco Grillini, a regional council member of the joint group (former IDV [Italy of Values]) and honorary president of Arcigay.

Morever the European Parliament has definitively rejected the Estrela report on “Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”, which would have sponsored abortion as a human right, fertilization and the “gender” theory, whereby European countries would have been expected to provide to everybody, even to very young people (without parental consent), contraception, assisted reproduction, retraining courses for teachers, compulsory school courses on gender identity and homosexuality.

There remains concern about the turn of events in India, but also happiness for the news from Europe.

Editorial Staff,  translation by Vito