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.”
The rite of Baptism even includes an exorcism:
V. Do you reject Satan?
R. I do.
V. And all his works?
R. I do.
V. And all his empty promises?
R. I do.
However, if you're dealing with people raising the child who have a public commitment to lesbian sin (a commitment they have shown in the most public way possible: pseudo-marriage), you do not have this sincere intent.
Baptism is not some kind of magic. Sincere intent is always required, otherwise it is fraudulent and, in fact, a sacrilege.
You obviously believe in the Sacrament of Baptism. Do you also believe in the Sacrament of Confession?
The child didn’t commit the sin, or any sin. Why not baptize him?
Can Spain be that oppressive and backwards?
I knew they had a barbaric past but surely they aren’t still so backwards.
Well I certainly wasn’t expecting some kind of Spanish Inquisition.
Every Sacrament must have intent--- not perfection, but intent --- to be freed from sin. If intent were not essential, we could just spray water over whole football stadiums of people and baptize them all, couldn't we? It would be as if Baptism was not a sacrament at all, but rather some kind of magic.
Being unbaptized does not damn this child. Unbaptized babies, when they die, are commended to the mercy of God in the rites of the Catholic Church.
See Mrs. Don-o’s post 21.
the baby can’t help who its being raised by
the baby can’t help who its being raised by... and will frankly need as much help from the Church and others of good will, as it grows up without a proper home
I’m all for the baby receiving the sacrament of baptism and being welcomed into the Church
So what you had here was two baptized parents (a Catholic and a Lutheran) requesting baptism for their child. The priest should have done it.
My Maltese hasn’t committed any sin. Why not baptize it?
I wasn’t interested in the internal affairs of the catholic denomination, I was doubting that the government of Spain requires infant baptism to enter school.
Exactly, the baby has done nothing wrong.
Years ago likely means before 1980, and probably before 1975. Unfortunately, Franco is still dead.
I'm no expert in Spanish law either, but since the death of Franco in 1975, the Spanish govt. has frequently been antagonistic to the Catholic Church and friendly toward the resurgence of parties of the Left, which promote severe secularism and even atheism.
However, going back 40 years or more, under Franco 1939-1975, it's a different story. He clearly used Catholicism to assert a conservative national identity. He rebuilt with public money the churches which had been dynamited by the Communist/Anarchist parties, and considered Catholicism a bulwark against the Left.
This still would not have been right under Canon Law; but Bishops (with saintly exceptions) are all too prone to conform to civil law and ignore canon law, when it suits them.
>>Can. 868 §1. For an infant to be baptized licitly:<<
>>1/ the parents or at least one of them or the person who legitimately takes their place must consent;<<
>>2/ 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.<<
What part of Canon law do you not understand?
No problem here; the baby should receive the Sacrament.
Mrs. Don-o is right, those were weird times. When a bishop needed to be appointed, the church presented three choices to Franco and he had the final say... just like the church had a say in what ministers were or were not chosen. I like to tell this story to teenagers, to show them the importance of freedom of religion and how lucky they are to be born in the USA.
So it was a requirement of the government?
True enough.
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