Homosexuality can be reversed by therapeutic methods: CBCI

It is not vague anymore. The Catholic Church has made a foursquare refusal to Delhi High Court's gay judgment last Thursday.

Responding to the controversial legalisation 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 government legalising homosexuality must not be construed that it is "morally permissible". 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.

While denoting that certain individuals have sexual orientation towards same sex caused by 'circumstances' or by 'birth', he distinctly outlined it was 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 ostracised from the community or family, simply because they have such tendency," he cautioned.

But he also intelligibly warns that "this does not that mean homosexual acts are moral; these acts are intrinsically evil."

He continues: "The so-called same sex marriage is immoral in any context; 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."

The Delhi High Court made a breakthrough for gay rights last week, when it ruled that gay sex between consenting adults was not a criminal act. All the religious groups in India have openly condemned the amending of the British colonial era law.