CNA's Spanish Affiliate Is Running Another "Bishop Morris" Campaign

CNA has rallied the troops in Mexico to go after Bishop Raul Vera Lopez -seen in this photo with recently deceased human rights activist Bishop Samuel Ruiz.  Hmmmm why do I wonder if this crusade has zero to do with gay rights and everything to do with other human rights issues in Mexico?

The following article from CNA caught my eye this morning, not because it describes a bishop under Vatican investigation precipitated by fundamentalist Catholics---that's hardly novel.  What made this article eye catching was the reaction of Bishop Vera:

Mexican bishop confirms Vatican inquiry into his support for homosexual group

Lima, Peru, Jul 28, 2011 / 06:04 pm (CNA).- Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo, Mexico has told a Mexican newspaper he has received “a series of questions” from the Vatican about his support for the San Elredo community, which holds positions on homosexuality that are contrary to Church teaching.

“There has been a call from the Vatican and I am ready to clear things up … I have to respond to a series of questions that Vatican City has sent me about my work with homosexuals,” Bishop Vera told the newspaper Zocalo.

He said the Vatican inquiry has come about “because a Catholic agency based in Peru, ACI Prensa, has made false claims that I promote homosexual relations.”
ACI Prensa is Catholic News Agency's Spanish-language sister publication.  (Oh my goodness, is Bishop Vera actually calling out a Chaput News Agency story?  This is novel.)

He accused ACI Prensa of distorting his work. “They allege that I am against the magisterium of the Church and unfortunately they are driven by prejudice and phobias against the homosexual community.”
The request for clarification from the Holy See, he insisted, “is because this Catholic news agency has said outrageous things.” (No...not CNA.)

Bishop Vera told the newspaper, “In the Diocese of Saltillo, we have very clear objectives. We work with (the gay community) to help them recover their human dignity, which is frequently attacked at home and in society, and they are treated like scum.”  (And quite frequently in Chaput News Agency publications.)

“I am not against the magisterium of the Church, nor do I promote dishonesty. It would go against my principles to promote depravity and immorality,” he said.
In response to the Vatican inquiry, the coordinator of the San Elredo community, Noe Ruiz, told Zocalo the group would be willing to leave the diocese in order to prevent the work of Bishop Vera from being hindered.
“If tomorrow they come tell Bishop Raul Vera, ‘You are endangering your work in Saltillo because of such a small community, a network of barely 600 people,’ it would not be worth the risk,” he said.

In March of this year, Bishop Vera published a statement on the diocesan website expressing support for the “sexual, family and religious diversity forum.” The event was aimed at “eradicating what some sectors of the Church believe about homosexuality” — especially the belief “that homosexual actions are contrary to God.”
Father Robert Coogan, the American priest who founded San Elredo, maintained that the group’s work is not contrary to the teachings of the Church.

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."

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Good luck to Bishop Vera.  Since no prelate seems to stand higher in the Vatican's scheme of things than Archbishop Chaput, I suspect Vera will be very lucky to keep his diocese.  I certainly support his view on the veracity of the news coverage of CNA and it's Spanish affiliate.  CNA is a propaganda outlet under the cover of a Catholic news outlet.  I'm pretty sure Opus Dei probably has more than one finger in it, although not quite as overt as the Legion fingers all over Zenit.  At least Zenit is useful for publishing and translating the full texts of Papal speeches.  While I always read Zenit translations with caution, Zenit is a useful source of information.  I am not quite sure what CNA is good for except to get a feel for the radical right.  Here's a taste of their definition of inclusiveness.  It's a comment left after another CNA article about Bishop Vera.  (CNA has run three articles on this situation in the last two weeks.  Here's a link to the first one.)


"Mexico has enough problems, it does not need a pro-gay Bishop or his defenders.   He & they, should be removed immediately as an example to other spineless prelates !   Unity of the faithful is primary to the inclusiveness of the deviates !"

Nice comment that, expresses a profound understanding of Christian love.  But I'm wondering why CNA has seen fit to publish three articles about a situation in a smaller Mexican diocese.  Then I remembered this quote from Chaput in John Allen's extensive interview. 

Gay marriage?
This is the issue of our time....
   
WHAT!!!!  Gay marriage is the issue of our time?  Where is that true?  In the Church?  I would think abuse, corruption, fiscal malfeasance, and the incredible exodus of laity are the issues of our time.  In society?  I would think the iniquitous distribution of wealth, corporate exploitation, global warming, human poverty, war, and disease are vastly more important issues.  In the family?  No, that would be heterosexual divorce,  unwed parents and the aforementioned social ills relating to disease and poverty.  If gay marriage isn't the issue of our time in the church, society, or family then just where is it the issue of our time?  In the minds of those who do not want their followers to see any of those other issues.  Those very issues where they have failed mightily and in some cases purposefully enabled that failure for their own ends.  


So I am not surprised that CNA has chosen to run three articles about a gay ministry in a Mexican diocese at the exact time the rest of the Catholic world has been focused on Ireland and the fact the Irish government is taking on the Vatican.  I am not surprised CNA is running these articles when the rest of the Christian world is debating white European Christian terrorism.  I am not surprised CNA is running these articles when the US is debating the insanity of the manufactured debt ceiling crisis which has the potential to send the whole world back into another devastating recession.  I will grant this, gay marriage is the issue in our time for those who desperately need a scapegoat to divert chunks of the population from considering the real issues facing humanity in our time.  It stinks to high heaven and I can't imagine heaven enjoys the smell.


God Bless Bishop Vera and may He grant Bishop Vera success in his quest to free himself and his diocese from the tyranny of CNA and it's purposefully misled readership.