Indian Catholic: Homosexuality Can Be Reversed
A Catholic Church leader has come out firmly against the Delhi High Court's gay-affirming decision.
Responding to the controversial legalization of homosexuality, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) on Friday said homosexual acts are immoral and should not be licensed.
Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, president of the CBCI, in a statement warned that the government legalizing homosexuality must not be construed as declaring homosexual behavior as "morally permissible."
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The "government should not give the impression that homosexuality is licensed," he said.
"Giving the impression that homosexuality is moral will bring in sexual anarchy including child abuse in society. The Indian culture which is founded on self-discipline and asceticism should not be allowed to disintegrate by opening the doors to sexual licentiousness which is already rampant in our consumer culture," Cardinal Vithayathil, who is also Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church, warned.
Last Thursday, the Delhi High Court made a landmark ruling, declaring that homosexual sex between consenting adults is not a crime. The decision applies only in New Delhi.
Vithayathil acknowledged that certain individuals may be attracted to someone of the same sex because of "circumstances" or by "birth," but he stressed that homosexuality is a "pathological condition that can be reversed by therapeutic methods."
He said the society at large with the help of religions and governments must help homosexuals to bring themselves back into their normalcy and integrate themselves into family life.
"Homosexuals should not be hated or ostracized from the community or family, simply because they have such tendency," he cautioned.
But he noted that "this does not that mean homosexual acts are moral; these acts are intrinsically evil."
"The so-called same sex marriage is immoral in any context," he continued. "There is not even sex act or marriage in it. Homosexual right is a misnomer, just as there is no right for the minority of people who are kleptomaniacs or serial killers who they say are have innate tendencies to steal or kill."
Other religious groups across India have also openly condemned the high court's ruling.
