The Roman-Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest opposes the proposals for the “decriminalisation of drugs consumption and the legalisation of the sex trade” contained in the report of the Presidential Committee on “risks and social inequalities in Romania”. “The two proposals show a reductionist view of the human person”, states mgr. Cornel Damian, auxiliary bishop of Bucharest, adding that legalisation “is not a solution to stop such plagues which affect adults as well as teenagers and children”. In addition, the release quotes Pope John Paul II, who, in the apostolic letter Familiaris consortio, stated: “The legalisation of prostitution means accepting a culture that trivialises human sexuality, interpreting and living it in a reductive, impoverished way”. The two bills of law have also been opposed to by the Rumanian Orthodox Patriarchy, “which firmly rejects any proposal for the legalisation of prostitution”. The spokesperson of the Patriarchy, Constantin Stoica, in his statement to the agency Mediafax, added that: “the purpose of the state institutions and the laws is to defend human dignity, the family as an institution, and the values of social life”, aspects that the two proposals “totally neglect”.

© SIR - sept 29, 2009