Rome, Italy, Jun 13, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Vatican news agency Fides is reporting the concern of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka for a new effort by nine Buddhist monks who are members of the national Parliament and are seeking to pass an “anti-conversion” law that would punish those who leave Buddhism to embrace other faiths such as Christianity.
Fides reported that “the fears expressed in the past by the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka have been confirmed: the Buddhist clergy—which formed a political party during general elections in April—has presented a bill to the legislative Assembly that would impose severe punishment and imprisonment on those who commit the crime of ‘unethical conversions’.”
The text of the measure “has provoked surprise and worry in Catholic circles, because in recent days the bishops, through personal contacts and meetings, have tried to explain the reasons for the opposition of the Church to such a measure.”
According to Fides, the nine Buddhist monks “are an expression of the most extreme groups that are motivated by a fundamentalist nationalism which seeks to preserve the Buddhist identity of the country.”