Vatican Investigates Mexican Bishop’s Work With Gay Group

The Roman Catholic bishop of Saltillo, Mexico, is under investigation by the Vatican for his work with gay organizations as well as groups that support the decriminalization of abortion.

Raul Vera Lopez (pictured) acknowledged to media outlets in the northern Mexican city that he has received inquiries from the Vatican about his diocese's affiliation with the Gay and Lesbian Community of Saint Aelred. The group works for gay rights and sponsors cultural activities, including film festivals.

Vera Lopez told local newspaper Zocalo that a Spanish Catholic news service, ACI Prensa, has erroneously said that his work with the group means he condones gay sex. "And I, in my life, never have worked for that," he said. "In the Diocese of Saltillo we have very clear objectives. We work with them [the homosexual community] to help them to recover their human dignity, which is injured for many of them beginning in their homes, in the society, and they are treated as a scourge." In the wake of the Vatican inquiry, brought on by the ACI Prensa stories, he has announced a restructuring of the group's leadership.

The bishop has explained his work on the abortion issue by saying he is fighting to end criminal penalties for the procedure. He told the anti-abortion website Life Site News that he considers abortion "a crime, a murder, of a child in the womb of his mother," but added, "What might be subject to debate is the penalization or non-penalization, and do you know why? Because of the frightful failures we have in Mexico in the judicial process. And they have imprisoned indigenous women for miscarriages, they have imprisoned them, there, in the state of Guanajuato, indigenous women who have had miscarriages, and they are in jail."

The Zocalo account, in Spanish, is here; articles from Life Site News (which is also antigay) can be found here and here.