The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil - CNBB (Catholic) released on May 16 a note on the reduction of legal age, during a press conference of the Episcopal Pastoral Council meeting (Consep). The CNBB "reaffirms that lowering the age is not the solution to end the violence."

Thus, the "Catholic Church in Brazil continues to believe in the regeneration capacity of the teenager when favored their basic rights and opportunities for comprehensive training in the values that dignify the human being."
In Curitiba, the national coordination of the Pastoral da Criança (Child Pastorate) also spoke out against the proposal to lower the age, an issue that came to the debate in the media. Reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 would not solve the problem of violence in Brazil, in the opinion of the manager of institutional relations of the Pastoral da Criança, Clovis Boufleur.

According to Boufleur, we must improve the quality of the social educational measures provided by the Statute of Children and Adolescents as a way to reduce crime in the country. "For every teenager who commits a crime (or an infraction act), there are 10 adults behind. Punishing a teenager only solves part of the problem and hide the rest”, he says.
For him, the Brazilian population as a whole has demonstrated some support to lowering the age of criminal responsibility as a result of the exposure of the subject in the media. "When people put excessive light in to a crime committed by a young man in big cities, just like it happens in Brazil, it gives the wrong idea that it is an endemic situation," notes Boufleur, stating that in less populated municipalities (around 70% of the Brazilian municipalities) youth violence is a problem proportionately small.

FULL OF NOTE FROM CNBB
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS OF BRAZIL
Episcopal Pastoral Council - 14th Meeting
Brasília - DF, 14A May 16, 2013
 
Note CNBB about lowering the criminal legal age

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Mt 5:9)
The debate about lowering the criminal legal age, placed in evidence once again by the commotion caused by barbaric crimes committed by teenagers, calls us to a deeper reflection on our responsibility to fight violence, promoting the culture of life and peace and caring and protecting the new generations of our country.
Juvenile delinquency is, first of all, a warning that the State, Society and Family have not adequately fulfilled its duty to ensure, with absolute priority, the rights of children and adolescents, as established in Article 227 of the Constitution. To criminalize teenagers with penalties within a prison would make up the true cause of the problem, sidetracking attention with simplistic answers, reckless and disastrous for society.

A systematic campaign of various media in favor of lowering the age of criminal is a violent act against the image of teenagers, forgetting that they are also victims of the unjust reality where they live. They are not primarily responsible for the increased violence that scares us all, especially the crimes of murder. According to the NGO Human Rights Conectas, most adolescents admitted to the Foundation House in São Paulo, was arrested for robbery (44.1%) and drug trafficking (41.8%). But the crime of stealing reaches 0.9% and homicide, 0.6%.

Therefore, it is immoral to induce the society to look to the teens as if they were primarily responsible for the violence in the country.
The Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), unlike it is propagated unfairly, is tough with adolescents in conflict with the law and does not tolerate impunity. It recognizes the responsibility of the teen author of offense, but believes his recovery, therefore proposes the application of educational measures that value the person and encourage self-overcoming conditions to return to normal life in society. It is a right of the society to require fro the State not only the effective implementation of educational measures, but also the investment for quality education, and public policies that eliminate social inequalities. Joins to this the need to combat the plague of drugs and the complex structure that supports it, causing numerous situations that lead adolescents to violence.

Adopted in 42 of 54 countries surveyed by UNICEF, the age of criminal responsibility to 18 years old "arises from international recommendations that suggest the existence of a specialized justice system to prosecute, to sue in court and hold offenders under 18" (UNICEF). To reduce the age would also "ignore the context of the constitutional fundamental clause - Federal Constitution, art. 228 -, and confronts the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent, the Minimum Rules of Beijing, the Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, the Standard Minimum Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (Rule Riad), the Pact of San José, Costa Rica and the Statute of Children and Adolescents "(cf. Declaration CNBB against lowering the age of criminal - 24.04.2009).

The Episcopal Pastoral Council of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Catholic) meeting in Brasilia on May 14 to 16 reaffirms that lowering the age is not the solution to end violence. It is the denial of the doctrine of integral protection that underlies the legal treatment guaranteed to children and adolescents by the Brazilian law. The Church in Brazil continues to believe in the regeneration capacity of the teenager when favored their basic rights and opportunities for comprehensive training in the values that dignify the human being.

Let us not quit fighting against the violence that is contrary to God's Kingdom; she "is never in the service of humanity, but dehumanizes," as Pope Benedict XVI recalled (Angelus, March 11, 2012).

God grant us all a maternal heart that pulses with mercy and responsibility for the person who suffers violence while is a teenager. Our Lady Aparecida protects our teens and assists us while defending the family.
Brasilia, May 16, 2013

Don José Belisario da Silva
Archbishop of São Luís do Maranhão
President CNBB in exercise
Don Sergio Arthur Braschi
Bishop of Ponta Grossa - PR
Vice-President of the CNBB in exercise
Don Leonardo Ulrich Steiner
Auxiliary Bishop of Brasilia
Secretary General of CNBB