ROSEAU (CMC):
ROMAN CATHOLIC Bishop, Garbriel Malzaire, has called on the authorities in Dominica to take urgent action to end prostitution and pornography in the country.
"I can assure you that if we do not attend to these matters without some urgency we will be sorry for ourselves and for our little paradise island in the not too distant future," he said.
"I want to assure you brothers and sisters that events such as these will continue only if we allow them to buy our silence and our lack of action," he told worshipers at the Christ the King celebration at the Botanic Gardens over the weekend.
CIVIL SOCIETY UNDER THREAT
Bishop Malzaire said pros-titution and pornography were challenging the fabric of the Christian and civil society and not enough is being done to tackle the problem.
"Pornography simply means the exhibition of sexual activity in literature, or in live shows intended to stimulate erotic feelings to the onlookers. These things are happening before our very eyes and we are pretending that it does not exist. There are now more houses of prostitution in the country than we are ready to admit," he said.
"We ask ourselves: What is becoming of our precious jewel Dominica. When the word on the lips of both youth and adults are 'pasa pasa' and 'slaughter house'. Nothing is hidden from the faces of the young person."
PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEVISION
The Roman Catholic official was also critical of the level of pornography shown on local television stations.
"It is evident that our local televisions or one of our local television stations is becoming more and more permissive with the kind of movies that they show, totally uncensored, he said."
"There are local websites with pornographic material to which our children are exposed. I want you to know that I made it my duty to check one of the web sites and I saw 'pasa pasa' weekends being advertised."
