Thursday, February 15, 2007
EXCOMMUNICATION
While American bishops waffle over giving Communion to politicians supporting abortion, the bishop of West Bengal is not afraid to excommunicate families who support the marriage of children, a common practice in the culture. Catholic News reports:
Indian Bishop Joseph Gomes and his West Bengal priests have banned at least a dozen Catholic families from the sacraments for three years after supporting marriage of children as young as six years old.
"We will not baptise children of guilty people and will prevent families from attending church functions," Bishop Gomes told Reuters in Kolkata.
Although women have to be 18 and men 21 to legally wed in India, child marriage is common in villages where deep-seated tradition has proved hard to change and law enforcement is poor.
At least 65 per cent of girls are married before 18 in India, government data shows, and activists say at least 150 cases of child marriage are reported every day.
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