Rebellious Bishop Raúl Vera López & Gay Conference
Image via WikipediaThe diocese of Saltillo, Mexico is promoting a conference by a diocesan homosexualist organization that condones sodomy and cross-dressing and cooperates with the pro-abortion organization “Catholics for the Right to Decide.” The bishop of the diocese himself, Bishop Raúl Vera López, is scheduled to say mass at the event.
One of the featured speakers for the conference, hosted by the “Community of San Aelredo,” is “Friar” Julián Cruzalta, a man who Catholic authorities have denounced for allowing himself to be falsely presented as a priest and representative of the Dominican order.
He has functioned as a “chaplain” to “Catholics for the Right to Decide,” has publicly opposed laws to protect the unborn from abortion in Mexico, and is a supporter of the homosexualist political agenda, according to the Catholic news agency ACI Prensa.
The conference, scheduled for March 25-27, seeks to “eradicate what some sectors of the Church think about homosexuality,” according to the informational page on the diocesan website. (The web page can be found here, and a translation can be found here.)
The scheduled events for the conference include talks on such topics as, “Two Mothers: Virtual Activism,” and “Papa, mama, I’m gay,” and a performance of the play “Crime for love doesn’t pay, but it’s comforting.”
The diocesan promotional materials for the conference do not mention the Catholic Church’s teaching, as contained in its official catechism, that homosexual acts are a “grave evil,” or that the homosexual orientation is “intrinsically disordered.”
As LifeSiteNews (LSN) first reported in 2008, the “Community of San Aelredo” is assisted by an American-born priest named Robert Coogan, who admitted to LSN in an interview at the time that he teaches that homosexual behavior is not a sin, and additionally claimed that the Catholic Church was in agreement with him.
Group co-founder Noe Ruiz told LSN in a 2007 interview that the group doesn’t “talk about avoiding relations, but we do talk about protection,” and added that the priests who counsel his group teach that homosexual sex acts are not sinful, as long as both partners are “in love.”
“We have three priests, who are spiritual guides for the community, and yes they touch on that type of subject, but always very responsibly, and we are talking about a couple that is in love, and it really is a demonstration of love, it really is affection that they feel for each other, there’s no problem,” Ruiz said.
In addition to his open support and sponsorship of the “Community of San Aelredo,” Bishop Vera López is a public supporter of the state of Coahuila’s “civil union” legislation for homosexual couples, in contradiction to the Vatican’s teaching that all legal recognition of homosexual unions must be opposed.
The San Aelredo Community is named after Saint Aelred, who homosexual activists sometimes claim was an active homosexual. In reality, Aelred denounced homosexual acts and warned monks from falling into such temptations.
