AN Indian group calling itself the Catholic & Christian Secular Forum wants people to stop blaming the Catholic Church for the global abuse scandal that has engulfed it, and instead points the finger of blame at The Gays.

AN Indian group calling itself the Catholic & Christian Secular Forum wants people to stop blaming the Catholic Church for the global abuse scandal that has engulfed it, and instead points the finger of blame at The Gays.

The group is also demanding an apology from the well-known Indian rationalist, Sanal Edamaruku, for pointing out earlier this year that water oozing out of a statue of Jesus was actually a seepage of sewage.

IT was out of pure concern for people’s health that prompted Sanal Edamaruku to demonstrate that the “miracle” was nothing of the sort, and he warned people not to drink the water from the “weeping” Jesus statue.

This, according to the Freethinker, was all to much for the forum, which saw the exposure of the “miracle” at a cross at the Church of Our Lady of Velankanni as an attack on Catholic faith, and promptly initiated blasphemy charge against him.

Now the Indian rationalist, having been denied bail, is living in exile in Finland.

Joseph Dias, of the CCSF, said that Edamaruku had a right to free speech, but this ought not to be allowed to “encroach” on people’s religious beliefs.

However, in a gesture of Christian magnanimity, his organisation was prepared to drop charges if Edamaruku were to apologise.

He effectively told them to bugger off.

Human rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves insists that no criminal act had taken place. The law under which he is charged, he said, requires a “deliberate and malicious act”.

He added:

What has this man done? He’s a rationalist. He’s giving you a rational , non-spiritual, non-hypothetical explanation [for the so-called miracle].

Edamaruku has appealed to the Indian Prime Minister to scrap the country’s blasphemy law, but to no avail.

Meanwhile this foul organization, which describes itself on its website as a “human rights” body, wants people to stop bad-mouthing Ratzinger, and has launched a lengthy petition to this end. It begins by saying:

The media is rife with allegations flying all around accusing the Pope from one end of the spectrum to another. However, to blame Cardinal Ratzinger of sweeping the child abuse cases under the carpet is gross injustice to the man … There is absolutely no proof to show that Pope Benedict XVI deliberately did nothing, in spite of having information.

It then goes on to link priestly paedophilia with homosexuality:

Cardinal Bertone’s comment that homosexuals are more likely to be paedophiles has drawn anger especially from gay groups. He is seen as second only to Pope Benedict sought (sic) to link homosexuality to paedophilia, saying homosexuality, not celibacy, lay behind the child sex abuse scandals.

Cardinal Bertone told a news conference: ‘Many psychologists, many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have demonstrated, I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia. That is true. I have the documents of the psychologists. That is the problem.

The organisation said it had placed on its website:

A well researched article that seeks to establish a relationship between gays & paedophiles. If this is true, then one needs to come down as heavily on homosexuality as well. This is something the media and liberated others are not likely to.