Intolerance is not a pretty word. Yet nowadays it is rebounding like a ping pong ball between the Catholic Church headed in Mexico by Cardinal Norberto Rivera and his many lay critics in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual, Transvestite, Transgender and Intersexual (LGBTTTI) groups, as well as the government.
Last Sunday, Norberto Rivera through his spokesman, priest Hugo Valdemar, launched the usual barrage of criticism against same-sex marriage in its weekly publication From The Faith summing up the Church’s stance in five points rejecting same-sex marriages:
1. The word of God rejects it.
2. It does not sanctify or breed life.
3. It causes physical, psychological and spiritual damage.
4. Wherever it’s been legalized it has gone against freedom of conscience and expression.
5. As it is opposed to the word of God, it places those involved in great risk of losing their salvation.
Tuesday there was a responsive barrage of articles condemning the condemnation in the Mexican press which priest Valdemar calls a “media lynching” of Cardinal Rivera for being outspoken against a bill that may soon become a law, proposed last May by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Since then, the Supreme Archbishop of Mexico, Cardinal Rivera that is, has kept a non-stop attack on the bill and even criticized President Peña Nieto for proposing the recognition of same-sex marriages nation-wide without consulting the Church. Adding insult to injury, the bill also includes modifications to the Federal Civil Code to legalize adoption by gay couples.
Priest Valdemar claims the Church is not scared of the enormous amount of criticism it is receiving from those who disagree with the vocal points of view printed in the Sunday weekly From the Faith, which is a very influential publication among priests, bishops and lay people.
“They don’t scare me and we don’t care in the least as to what they say. One Monday I counted 42 opinion columns against us, all of them visceral. They are really nasty and lacking in respect in terms of language use.”
A leading point of view among people — many of them politicians — who oppose the Church is that the president’s bill is not a religious proposition but a legal one in which Cardinal Rivera may have his right to an opinion, but cannot oppose it as it is a civil — not a religious — wedding.
But to show this, says Father Valdemar, “there is a terrible intolerance among those who attack the Church for defending family values.”
He also argues that the Church is not “homophobic,” an allegation that instills even more rage among those who feel offended by Cardinal Rivera’s “homophobic” campaign.
“The Church,” Valdemar said in an interview, “very simply is defending its doctrine, its principles and of course, that does not make it homophobic. This has been a sort of blackmail from those people who claim that if you are opposed, they tag you with the ‘homophobic’ moniker.”
But there is resentment against President Peña Nieto for introducing the same-sex marriage bill and Valdemar recalls that when Pope Francis was in Mexico “he received the Holy Communion at the [Guadalupe] Basilica and he has always claimed to be a Catholic.”
In his welcoming speech to Pope Francis, Valdemar added, Peña Nieto told the pope “the causes of the pope are also the causes of Mexico.”
Because Peña Nieto behaved like a devout Catholic, the Church in Mexico (as well as The Vatican) was thrown off guard.
“I’ve talked to many bishops — and I am not their spokesman — and they all show not merely to be disconcerted but feel outright betrayed” by President Peña Nieto’s unexpected siding with the LGBTTTI community.
“He and his party were safeguarding family values.”
Or so they thought!
Surely same-sex marriage and adoption will continue for the months to come as a theme of debate between Church and State, but we live in times where it is obvious that the Catholic Church — as represented in Mexico by Cardinal Norberto Rivera and vocalized by priest Valdemar — have not noticed that the lights have changed.
But what remains to be seen is if the Mexican Catholic Church will have a lobby when the bill hits the floor at Congress.
