Bishop Jose Raul Vera Lopez (68) from the Diocese of Saltillo Mexico recently gave a television interview in which he discussed his views on homosexuality. The reporter first asked the Bishop to respond to Pope Francis’s statement concerning gays. Bishop Vera Lopez said: “I am certain he [the Pope] knows because the reality is many in the Church do not want to acknowledge the scientific reality on the issue of sexuality. They want to keep homosexuality as a form of human perversion, an illness. But that no longer is the case, scientifically speaking.” He went on: “One mother came to me and said that she was being watchful of her son because he was hanging out with ‘those degenerate gays’ and I said ‘so blame yourself for it because that's the way your son developed in your womb and he didn't develop into a degenerate or a perverse person. He was born with a certain constitution you are trying to ignore. Calm down, you are the mother of that child and he began to be who he now is inside your womb. So the first one I'd kick out would be you because you are the perverse one who is first in line.’ That's what I said.” He added: “Why would I immediately think a gay or lesbian person is perverse or depraved the moment they approach me? That's how people who are homophobic react. It's a mental illness in which you see gays as depraved and promiscuous. You have to be sick in the head for that.” The reporter then wanted to know what will be changed in the Church with regards to gays, he said: “What is the reestablished view? The same one as always! The one the Church has always had. We just have to read the Bible more carefully within a historical context and within a real context. The Bible texts we have used to bash the heads of homosexuals to say they are condemned by the Bible? We have to read them much more carefully.”
Note: While the Bishop appears to be a sincere, kindly, and well-intentioned man – he is nonetheless very dangerous. In his attempt at charity, he has created an atmosphere of sexual license. On a personal level: As a Catholic, I am ashamed, and feel we are serving our homosexual brothers and sisters very poorly. I am not going to get into a point by point critique of his bizarre statements; as I have done that ad nauseam in this blog. But, I will testify that he is condemning many gay men and women to an eternity of torment in hell. He is imprisoning those with same-sex attraction to a life in which they are eternally chained to their dysfunction because they were apparently created in the womb that way. God made no one mentally disturbed or emotionally wounded. That happened after we were born. It’s a very sad day when a Prince of the Catholic Church spews such harmful drivel. Only, he is not just damaging his own soul, by preaching Biblical and doctrinal untruths, but of the countless men and women, searching for an answer to why they are unfulfilled and lonely, and they happen to hear or read the Bishop’s opinions. After that, figuring that nothing is really wrong with them – they may go back to the lives they once knew in the gay world. Sadly, some may never survive that return visit; they may die of AIDS, suicide, or while still on the hapless quest for an unattainable speck of happiness. Their lives are on your head Bishop.