June 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Brazilian Catholic bishops are denouncing recent homosexual “pride” parades in which Christian symbols were publicly desecrated, and asking for legal action to be taken against the perpetrators.
Members of the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) First Southern Region have issued a press release decrying the “clear manifestations of disrespect for the religious consciousness of our people and of the major symbol of the Christian faith, Jesus crucified.”
Noting that the desecration of religious symbols “is recognized as a crime in the Criminal Code” of Brazil, the bishops ask the federal government, which is the “guardian of the Constitution,” to “defend the rights that have been injured.”
As LifeSiteNews reported last week, homosexuals marching in Sao Paulo’s annual gay parade earlier this month sparked outrage among many Brazilians when they displayed a seminude transsexual crucified on a cross. Other marchers smashed Christian images or sat on them naked, with the images covering their genitals. One transsexual was photographed in a lewd striptease in front of a church.
Rogério Rosso, representing the nation’s federal district in the House of Deputies, responded by proposing a new law prohibiting such displays and imposing a fine and up to eight years in prison for perpetrators. Another legislator, Senator Magno Malta, denounced the government-funded parades for going “outside the boundaries” of proper discourse, sowing “intolerance and disrespect for religious liberty.” He has asked federal prosecutors to begin a criminal investigation of the behavior.
The bishops express their “astonishment to see that an event like this one could be authorized and patronized by the government, and used to promote acts that clearly offend the rule of law that the Constitution guarantees.” They remind Catholics that “the profanation of religious symbols require from us an act of reparation and religious satisfaction, asking the Lord God for the pardon of the sins committed and the conversion of hearts.”
“A lot of people have asked me about the image of a transsexual on the cross during the Gay Parade,” tweeted Odilo Pedro Scherer, the Cardinal Archbishop of Sao Paulo. “I understand that those who suffer feel like Jesus on the cross. However, it is necessary to take care not to trivialize or use religious symbols in an irreverent manner, respecting people’s religious sensibility. If we want to receive respect we must show respect.”
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