Simón Cazal (left) with his husband, Sergio López, at their civil marriage ceremony in Argentina.
Posted on 06/15/2015 9:26:59 AM PDT by ebb tide
When Pope Francis travels to Paraguay in July, one of the meetings he will have will include a married gay man. It is the first known public meeting that the pope will have with a gay or lesbian person who is legally married.
What’s more, the individual is a leading gay activist: Simón Cazal, executive director of the Paraguayan LGBT rights group SOMOSGAY (“We Are Gay”). Cazal married another gay activist, Sergio López, in Argentina in 2012.
Simón Cazal (left) with his husband, Sergio López, at their civil marriage ceremony in Argentina. Buzzfeed.com broke the story about this meeting, noting that Cazal will be meeting with the pope in a roundtable setting with other Paraguayan civil leaders. Also significant is that this meeting was initiated by the Vatican, Cazal having never requested to be part of the event. Buzzfeed reported:
“López told BuzzFeed News that the invitation came as a total surprise — the group had not requested to be included in the meeting. Paraguay also is one of the few South American countries where no protections exist for LGBT people or same-sex couples; their marriage in Argentina has no legal force in their country.”
The meeting will take place on July 11th, in the capital city of Asunción. Though Francis has made pastoral gestures with LGBT groups, including New Ways Ministry’s pilgrims, the meeting with Cazal marks the first time he will meet with an LGBT civic leader.
While Cazal did not make a request to be invited, the invitation came shortly after SOMOSGAY initiated a campaign, in light of the papal visit, to urge the Catholic Church to show greater respect for LGBT people. A press release on the organization’s website explains the need for the campaign, in the words of their executive director, Noting Pope Francis’ many affirming statements to the LGBT community, Cazal stated:
“ ‘One can be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender AND a Catholic at a time; there is no contradiction between being an LGBT person and being a religious person. Respect for personal beliefs is inherent in democracy’ says Sergio López, activist of SOMOSGAY. ‘We recognize that human diversity also exists within the Catholic Church, especially in Paraguay, being the Latin American country with the highest percentage of Catholics, with a rate of 89%. We hope that the religious leaders of our country catch up with the Holy Father and join his stance of openness and reconciliation.
“In that sense, SOMOSGAY calls the Church to abandon the positions of intolerance and insults dehumanizing LGBT people. ‘Denying rights, attacking people and ignore their families goes against Catholic principles of love and respect, we hope that -as in the days of the dictatorship, the choice of the Paraguayan Catholic Church is in favor of and unprotected and persecuted in our time, among those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, ‘ said López.
Buzzfeed added that Cazal’s hope for his meeting with the pontiff will result in Pope Francis speaking out against violence directed toward the LGBT community, particularly in response to an oppressive incident that happened last year:
“SOMOSGAY made international news last June when riot police violently removedLGBT protestors supporting a resolution supportive of LGBT rights when they clashed with religious conservative protestors before the beginning of a meeting of the Organization of American States in Asunción last year.
“López told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that they are counting on the pope to ‘address the issue’ of violence targeting LGBT people ‘since the OAS repression went completely unnoticed and unrecognized by the church here.’ This was especially galling, López said, because ‘the whole repression happened during a Catholic march.’ ”
This invitation is very good news. Let’s hope that this meeting will help Pope Francis clear up the diplomatic standoff that the Vatican currently has with France, since he has not yet approved the new French ambassador who happens to be gay.
Let’s hope, too, that Pope Francis replicates the invitation by inviting LGBT Catholics to meet with him when he visits the United States in September. It is wonderful that he is visiting in Paraguay with an LGBT civic leader who can explain to him how civil society harms LGBT people. It’s now incumbent upon him to hear from LGBT people of faith, specifically Catholics, who can explain to him how church structures and policies cause harm.
Simón Cazal (left) with his husband, Sergio López, at their civil marriage ceremony in Argentina.
When are the cardinals going to stop this pope...after everyone leaves the church??
Your hero is bending over forwards to appease the sodomites.
Hey, why not? Who is he to judge? They seem like nice guys and that’s all that matters these days.
So LGBTs have a pope of LGBTness. How marvelous that two popes of two different worldwide religions are coming together.
Maybe , Just Maybe the Pope could spend some time ,dealing with the problems of normal God Fearing Catholics.
Maybe !!!
Although no doubt a good man, the Pope is a committed Leftist ... and to the Left, judgement is a bad thing. Because of his dedicated Leftism, the Pope finds himself — and continue to find himself — in conflict with the tenets of the Church.
Will he try to convert him or get him to turn from his wicked ways and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior? If so, Hurray! …...however….
You are so blasted desperate to character assassinate this pope as to cite a blog from New Ways Ministry? Really?
Bergoglio does enough already. You certainly don’t need to rely upon sources that make the National Schismatic Distorted seem orthodox to help your cause, do you?
ROFL! You didn’t do a search first to see how many places it’s actually being reported did you?
He once talked about quitting. He should follow through.
Hey they needed a new supply of young boys after NAMBLA came under so much fire. I’m surprised he hasn’t visted the U.S. The LGBT now has plenty of new scout recruits to fulfill that need.
The OAS has been pushing pro LGBT policies in Latin America since 2008.
Re: Paraguay in June 2014, when 25,000 pro family Paraguayans took to the streets to defend traditional marriage and family.
Paraguayan foreign minister Eladio Loizaga announced this past Friday that his country would not back the resolution. “Paraguay will not join the consensus” he said, without a national debate beforehand. He added that the “National Constitution contains clear principles about the family and what constitutes marriage.”
>>ROFL! You didn’t do a search first to see how many places it’s actually being reported did you?
Shouldn’t the OP have gone to one of those more reliable sources as a source for his post?
Indeed, rofl
What difference does it make? The information is the same. Address the substance of the information and stop playing liberal.
Nice guys with a well-funded movement behind them $$$$$$.
that’s what I’ve been saying. Sin isn’t any less tempting now. Life’s problems aren’t any easier. He is supposed to be our guiding light and I don’t know what he is doing
Il Giornale is using the same source as the New Ways Ministry blog: Buzzfeed.
And Buzzfeed is basically a press release from the sodomite organization in Paraguay.
If you take a look at the pope’s itinerary, you don’t see this listed. You do see a meeting scheduled with representatives of civil society on 11 July at 16:30. It’s going to be a real intimate meeting too. It’s at Leon Condou Stadium. Just the pope and 34,000 of his closest friends.
Sources matter.
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