AMERICA/BRAZIL - Various points of National Program for Human Rights are not in accord with the Church's Doctrine

Sao Paolo (Agenzia Fides) - A group of Brazilian Bishops has rejected several points of the National Program on Human Rights decreed by President Luiz Lula da Silva. The program on human rights, implemented by the Minister in that area, Paulo Vanucci, provides for the establishment of the National Commission for the truth about the crimes of the dictatorship, some aspects regarding conflicts over land, the decriminalization of abortion, and civil unions between homosexuals. The program had already been questioned by some military leaders who oppose the investigation of crimes committed by the dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. Moreover, the economic groups linked to agricultural production, have opposed the initiative that includes 27 bills that would be turned into law within the next 11 months. "We see these initiatives as an arbitrary and undemocratic attitude of Lula's government. The Church is against it. All the bishops are against it," said the Bishop Jose Simao of Assis, President of the Committee for Defense of Life in the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB). (CE) (Agenzia Fides 11/01/2010)