Brazilian bishops denounce president’s human rights program
January 12, 2010
Brazilian bishops are offering strong criticism of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s new National Program for Human Rights. While most media coverage has centered on the creation of a truth commission to investigate crimes committed under the former military dictatorship (1964-85), the program also decriminalizes abortion and allows for homosexual civil unions.
“We see these initiatives as an arbitrary and undemocratic attitude of Lula's government,” said Bishop José Simao of Assis, president of the Committee for Defense of Life in the Brazilian Bishops' Conference. “The Church is against it. All the bishops are against it.”
The nation of 189 million is 85% Catholic.
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Further information:
- Various points of National Program for Human Rights are not in accord with the Church's Doctrine (Fides)
- Brazil truth commission arouses military opposition (BBC)
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