Posted on 06/01/2014 5:20:38 PM PDT by ebb tide
Mexico City, May 28, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Mons. Raul Vera Lopez, bishop of Saltillo in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, baptized a 16-month-old who is being raised by her natural mother and her lesbian partner this past week. This was the second such baptism to take place in Latin America recently, after a similar event took place last month in the Archdiocese of Cordoba, Argentina.
Bishop Vera Lopez has stirred controversy about his views on homosexuality in the past. Two years ago he was investigated by Vatican officials because he had affiliated his diocese with a group that openly promoted the homosexual lifestyle. Bishop Vera was their “spiritual guide.” Last year he also said, “You need to be sick in the head” to think homosexuality is a perversion, according to local media.
The bishop met two weeks ago with Pope Francis in Rome, and according to the Mexican newspaper Excelsior, the prelate discussed his views of “caring for vulnerable groups, such as the lesbian-gay community” with the pope.
“I have been open and given clarity to homosexual couples or whatever,” said the bishop, according to the pro-gay website CristianosGays. “But some groups within the Church say I promote promiscuity, those are conservative groups that harm pastoral care.”
“Who am I to judge? The Pope has the same attitude as Christ did,” he said.
The girl's mother and her partner, Lourdes Badillo and Cristal Cobas, were “married” in Mexico City, where homosexual unions have legal recognition. The girl was conceived through artificial insemination. Badillo is the natural mother.
Earlier this year, the couple made the headlines by becoming the first homosexual couple in Mexico to have their child accepted into the Mexican government’s social health system (IMSS), after a long legal battle with the institution.
“I am very happy,” Cobas told the local media. “This is another small step we must take even if laws and society don’t approve of this type of relationship.”
The girl was baptized in the Church of Saint Francis alongside two other children.
“There were several couples,” said Bishop Vera Lopez. “If I find the natural daughter of one of two women, how can I deny her baptism? If the parents seek it it’s because there is a Christian faith,” he explained to the media.
“To receive baptism there is a preparation, and during these talks certain values are made clear. The Pope already said it: Who am I to judge?”
Coahuila’s governor Ruben Moreira, from Mexico’s Party of the Institutional Revolution, welcomed Vera Lopez’ actions: “I congratulate him, we needed a voice like his, full of wisdom… to tell us that we are all children of God.”
While the governor said that the bishop was acting according to Church teaching, the Church’s Code of Canon Law states that for an infant to be baptized in the Catholic Church “there must be a founded hope that the infant will be brought up in the Catholic religion.”
“If such hope is altogether lacking, the baptism is to be delayed according to the prescripts of particular law after the parents have been advised about the reason,” canon 868 §1 adds.
Last month's baptism in Argentina was criticized over fears that the public ceremony was being used as a publicity stunt to undermine the Church's teachings on homosexuality. The couple in that case chose the president of Argentina as the godmother for their child, and made an extensive media tour following the baptism.
Bishop Vera López has also functioned as the head of two Mexican “human rights” organizations that support the legalization of abortion.
“Vera is a dissident,” Juan Dabdoub, president of the Mexican Family Council, told LifeSiteNews. “He only seeks to hurt the Church in everything he thinks the Church is wrong; it is a disobedience… I don’t understand how the Hierarchy tolerates it.”
Nope. Big problem according to canon law.
Your Maltese isn’t human. In this case the protection of the child’s soul comes down to whether your parent is a moron or not.
I would imagine so, but way back then the lines between Church and government were so blurry it would take a lawyer to answer with 100% certainty. As for the people, just trying to go about their business, it was just more paperwork, more requirements... nothing new! Keep in mind that I am talking about a country were, before having a birthday party for your child, you were required to go to the nearest police station and apply for a permit. With lots of stamps, to milk some more money out of you!
Replace “moron” with “unrepentant lesbian” who will not raise the child in the Catholic faith.
Why not go down to the nursery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and secretly baptize those infants?
Why not baptize people on a public transit bus or at an airport boarding gate. You could be a missionary extradonaire!
How would y’all feel about the baptism of the child of two Satanists who had no other plans of raising their child except as a Satanist?
Do you not feel it to be a mockery of the Catholic Church and Her Sacraments?
I read El Pais on-line, just to make sure I don’t forget the language. About a year ago there was an article about the government having drastically cut the funding of Catholic churches while building mosques like crazy.
I’m not mocking anything. Should the children bear the sins of the parents?
I honestly can’t answer you completely. About all I can say is that such a baby will need as much help as it can get, and especially that of learning g to know God and to have God in its life. I can’t think of any better or more likely source of this assistance for the child than the Church. I therefore hope the Church would welcome - and not refuse or reject - such a child.
We’re bearing the sins of our parents, Adam and Eve, aren’t we?
I didn’t say you were mocking anything. I’m saying the bishop and the lesbians are mocking a Sacrament and they’re using an innocent infant as their tool; just as Satanists do.
Ok. Fair enough. I’m not really criticizing the church on this point either, because I believe Christ has everything covered as far as anything we could do to save ourselves.
Paid for. :)
I assume you’re not Catholic, is that right? If so, baptize the kid in your own “church”.
If Christ has covered everything, why even baptize people?
The Great Commission makes it permissible to do just that.
Whatever happened to limbo?
Unbaptized babies don’t go there any more?
what if their intention is mockery…and in the end the baptized child becomes their salvation. God in his time could use the goodness of this baptized child to initiate a conversion in his parents…with God all things are possible.
It may be a mockery but the child is not the one doing the mocking. Would you deny salvation to the child for the actions of the parents?
The odds of a child being raised in the Faith who was conceived through artificial insemination (morally unacceptable, per Church teaching) and brought up by lesbians aping marriage are slim to none.
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