“Jesus Christ welcomed sinners and cast out the Pharisees, which shows that excluding others is not Christian, we want to erase homophobia from peoples’ hearts.” - Bishop Raul
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With all due respect to his office, I think the Bishop is mistaken. A little homophobia never hurt anyone - it's especially good for those Catholics who just might be thinking it is an acceptable=equal lifestyle. I'm talking about this in the sense of a healthy 'fear of sin'. The Church clearly teaches that homosexual behavior, homosexual acts, is sinful. The Christian should fear falling into sin, the Christian should fear the contagion of sin, therefore if 'they' call that 'homophobia' - so be it. One has to get the 'politics' out of Church teaching.
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What I find so astonishing is the double-speak coming from this Bishop's diocese - he claims he is supporting 'gay rights' for humanitarian reasons. While insisting he is supporting Church teaching, he also supports the position of the American priest whose apostolate to gay people appears to be more liberal in the pastoral care of the homosexual person. As Fr. Coogan, the founder of the San Eledro gay-community tells it, “you need to go beyond the Catechism.” Really? Strikes me as a little 'holier than the Church'.
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I expect this is going to be the trend going forward - unless as the American Bishop Tobin tells it, "We need our people to understand that this is a serious issue. Our greatest danger as a Catholic community is apathy." That said, Catholic groups in the Mexican Diocese of Saltillo have mobilized to urge Bishop Lopez to end the ministry as it exists.
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From Catholic News Agency:
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Saltillo, Mexico, Apr 5, 2011 / 02:49 am (CNA).- Catholic family groups in the Mexican Diocese of Saltillo are urging Bishop Raul Vera Lopez to withdraw his support for a group that they say undermines Church teaching on homosexuality.
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“A pastoral commitment to homosexual persons is necessary and welcomed, but not at the expense of the family and a solid pastoral plan for marriage and family, which is unfortunately being neglected in the diocese,” said Natalia Niño, president of Familias Mundi, which is based in the diocese in northeastern Mexico.
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Niño criticized the diocese’s support for the San Elredo Community, which she said “publicly promotes an openly homosexual lifestyle, gay ‘marriage’ and gay adoptions.”
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Bishop Vera Lopez, in the audio interview on his website, called the criticism of the event “agenda-driven.”
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"Jesus Christ welcomed sinners and cast out the Pharisees, which shows that excluding others is not Christian,” he said. “We want to erase homophobia from peoples’ hearts.”
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But Familias Mundi leader Niño denied allegations of “homophobia.”
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“Our criticism has nothing to do with individual persons, their dignity and their rights. This is about doctrines that are opposed to the Church’s teachings and that have grave negative effects in our society,” she told CNA.
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In his interview on the diocesan website, Bishop Vera Lopez also stressed the need to defend homosexual rights.
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He affirmed his support for state recognition of civil unions among homosexuals. At the same time, the bishop said this does not mean he supports homosexual marriage, because marriage “is only between a man and a woman.”
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Fr. Coogan, who worked as a publicist and a volunteer at rehabilitation centers in New York before being ordained a priest in Saltillo, said that God makes men and women to be homosexual.
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“What God creates is a blessing for the world. Homosexuals are a blessing for the world. The world could not exist without homosexuals, it could not exist. God in his wisdom created diversity,” he told CNA.
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San Elredo believes homosexuality is “a permanent orientation,” he added.
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“It begins at a very young age and is permanent, like being right-handed or left-handed. It is something innate in people,” he said.
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He raised questions about the Church’s teachings that homosexual acts are sinful and that persons with a homosexual orientation must live chaste lives.
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“Moral culpability, in the oldest tradition of the Church, is affected by the freedom of the person … if there is no freedom, there is no culpability. The child who fires a gun is not guilty. And so if there are people who are subject to the wrath of society, how much freedom do they have? If they are afraid to tell their parents about their orientation, how much freedom do they have in their lives?”
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He added: “How can a person with same-sex attraction have a fulfilling life? And the only answer the Catechism gives is to tell them to be celibate, and that is not enough.” - CNA
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This thinking by Bishop Lopez, shared by a few other churchmen in Latin America and the Philippines, is probably shared by not a few other ecclesiastics in a chancery closet near you.
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Art: "Dead Bishops" - Fernando Botero
