Bishops' official blames decline in values for sexual violence

Archbishop D'Souza said "duty and mandate" of church workers is to become advocates for an end to sexual crimes.

New Delhi:  The decline of moral and spiritual values is largely to blame for the surge in rape and sexual violence, said the secretary-general of the Indian bishops' conference.

"The core values of the society are getting degenerated. Indiscriminate gratification of desires, induced by the media, lies at the root of the increasing number of rapes," Archbishop Albert D'Souza of Agra told Catholic News Service.

"Young girls and even (religious) novices have become vulnerable to sexual predators," he said, as Indian media buzzed about the latest reports on the rapid increase in the number of rapes in India.

A study by the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative discovered that two rapes have been reported every hour for the last 13 years, according to crime data collected by India's National Crime Records Bureau.

The number of rapes registered by police had doubled from 16,075 cases in 2001 to 33,707 in 2013, the bureau reported.

Social activists say many more cases go unreported because of stigmatization and intimidation by culprits.

"The easy access to pornography through Internet and the media play a big a role in the increase in the number of rapes," Archbishop D'Souza said.

The rape of a 16-year-old girl of Holy Nativity Convent on July 16 in a suburb of the southern India city, shows the "dangerous situation" in which Indian women live, the prelate said.

Unidentified men rang the doorbell, covered the face of the novice with chemicals when she opened the door and then raped her just outside the building within the convent premises.

News of the rape circulated the day irate parents and others stormed an elite public school following reports that a 6-year-old girl had been raped in the school by two staff members. Police arrested four people, including two instructors and the school's owner for failing to report the crime to the police.

Archbishop D'Souza said "duty and mandate" of church workers is to become advocates for an end to sexual crimes.

Holy Spirit Missionary Sister Helen Saldanha, secretary of the women's office of Indian bishops' conference, told CNS the church has "to be more active" in all spheres to combat sexual crimes.

Source: The Pilot