The Catholic Bishops Conference of India has asked the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to enact legislation to make pre-marital AIDS tests compulsory.
Catholics bishops from across the country, who gathered for a general assembly in Kerala from January 7 to 15, said the Church is ready to introduce compulsory AIDS tests before solemnizing marriages in parishes.
But the Church's initiative will have an impact only if appropriate legislation is enacted by the central government, the 156 bishops said at the end of their meeting.
Quoting India's health ministry, the CBCI said 4.58 million people -- about 0.8 percent of India's adult population -- have contracted the HIV virus. "The Church in India is ready to initiate measures that will strengthen the fight against AIDS," CBCI spokesperson Father Babu Joseph told rediff.com
He said the bishops decided to ask young Catholics to disclose if they have contracted the HIV virus before marriage. "Priests should be convinced about the health of couples before solemnizing their marriage," the CBCI spokesperson said.
According to the CBCI, fighting AIDS is a major healthcare mission for the 4,745 Catholic hospitals and dispensaries in India. The Catholic Church also runs 39 hospitals and health care units to treat AIDS patients exclusively.
The CBCI said the Church in India is ready to empower parishes to ask for HIV-negative certificates from couples before their marriage.
In the absence of legislation, the Church also plans to annul marriages in which a partner is deceived by the other who contracted HIV/AIDS before marriage, but knowingly gets into wedlock.
The bishops pointed out that an AIDS test is obligatory for Catholic marriages in the United States and many European countries.
Last week, a Catholic priest's refusal to bury a parishioner who died of AIDS in a church cemetery in Kerala compelled Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil to issue guidelines to the clergy on treating HIV/AIDS victims.
The 38-year-old AIDS victim was identified only as James, a truck driver who belonged to the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese's Elavoor parish, located some 30 kilometers north of Kochi.
Elavoor parish priest Father George Payapilli objected to James' burial in the cemetery. Instead, James was buried in a pit dug outside the cemetery, though inside the church complex.
Dismayed by the priest's actions, the cardinal's circular urged the clergy not to discriminate against AIDS patients in matters of church rites. The cardinal said the clergy needed to take care of AIDS victims with love and mercy, adding that the Catholic Church does not consider AIDS patients as sinners.
