MADRID — A socialist government official in Andalusia, Spain, called for a local Catholic bishop to be “muzzled” for arguing that men and women are both different and complementary.
Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Cordoba should be silenced for leveling attacks against “real and effective equality between men and women,” charged Miguel Angel Vazquez, a member of the Socialist Party and spokesman for the Andalusian provincial government.
In a Jan. 4 post on his personal blog, Vazquez labeled Bishop Fernandez “a true representative of religious fanaticism” and said that the prelate provokes “controversies that are at odds with the individual and collective rights embodied in the constitution.”
Calling the bishop’s defense of marriage and the family “backwards,” Vazquez said that he would “rather burn in hell (if it exists) than renounce equality.”
In a recent pastoral letter, Bishop Fernandez critiqued sexual philosophies that hold the differences between men and women to be a social construct rather than a biological reality.
Such ideology, displayed in radical feminism and the push for universal acceptance of homosexual behavior, “destroys the family and breaks every tie man has with God through his own nature,” he warned.
“A series of educational, medical and academic programs exist at the service of this ideology in an attempt to force it upon everyone, causing tremendous harm to the consciences of children, teens and young people,” the bishop said.
The Catholic Church draws the ire of those who promote such sexual philosophies, Bishop Fernandez acknowledged, because it is “emphatically opposed” to this view of human sexuality, “which breaks with God and with nature itself as God has designed it.”
“Herod is still alive and is not only killing the innocent in the womb, but also trying to instill this ideology in the minds of our children, teens and young people” by undermining the family and its intrinsic importance, he added.
“The future of humanity is in the family, in the family that fulfills God’s plan.”
Comments
Post a Comment
In Eusebius’ “The History of The Church From Christ to Constantine”, Book 5 contains a long passage describing in terrifying detail the public tortures and deaths of Christians in Lyons and Vienne in Gaul during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The letter from the churches in those cities also describes the martyrs’courage and willingness to die for the name of Christ. They were aware that in their martyrdom, these Christian women and men were victorious. Crowds can be whipped into bloodlust frenzies at any time by politicians. It happens daily. All of us Christians must look for that courage in our hearts, and to look for it in the sacraments and teachings of Holy Church. And we must do it daily with serious prayer.
Thank you to the Bishop for his open and respectful challenge to the cultural values being pushed by many political and academic leaders. Many people are deceived into accepting the redefinition of marriage and sexual identity because the new definition seems to have the stamp of approval of intellectuals. We need leaders like Bishop Fernandez to intelligently articulate the problems with the modern positions and restore the common understanding of what it means to be created human, man and woman.
Yes, I know it is a direct attack on religion and free speech but extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures as we, in the West face the greatest danger we have ever known - homophobia.
He is taking Pope Benedict’s recent exhortation to bishops very seriously. Praise God!
My first thought was Vazquez might get his wish to burn in hell if he doesn’t straighten out. God bless this bishop.
So it has come to that. Even from an Athiest point of view, nature is nature, it is called Biology.
Does this mean that if a given country says that ‘murder’ is normal and natural, that we can’t condemn murder. There is nothing more natural than a man and a woman having a child, it is called Biology. There is nothing more unnatural about a MAN and a MAN having a child, again, it is called Biology. What do these people not understand.
Then more importantly for us, is the way God created us. The farther we get from the laws of Nature, or more importantly, the laws of God, the worse society will become. Mass murders of the type we see today, was only a prediction 40 years ago, now it is a fact. Let us all pray that God help us to protect our children from the twisted thinking that is surrounding our young people, on TV, on the internet, on their smart phones, on the tongues of their friends, everywhere.
What a pleasure to hear from a true and courageous bishop. And how sad to see what has happed to what used to be “Catholic country.” I am sure that God will have to accomadate Vasques’ demonic ranting and I will pray for his conversion. Because of nut cases like Vasquez, Spain has ceased to be the great country it was once. Bishop Cordova, I pray that many more bishops will follow your lead and that some day you will be Cardinal Fernandez.
Thank God for the moral courage of Bishop Fernandez of the historic and ancient diocese of Cordoba to speak out against the intrinsic evil of same sex marriages following the recent same teaching by Pope Benedict. It would be wonderful if the U.S.Catholic Conference of Bishops, under its articulate and forthrigth spokesman, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, were to issue the same statement, the same emphasis, the same words so that no one be he Christian or atheist or somewhere in the muddle of subjective mush would have no doubt that there is no compromise on a fundamental teaching from Holy Scripture, the Magisterium of the Church and the Natural Law. This is the challenge for true martyrs,i.e. witnesses to the Faith, at any cost rather than the loss of eternal life. Deacon John M. Edgerton, Tarpon Springs, Florida
We must pray for Bishop Cordoba to keep speaking the Truth—I had read that the Cardinal or Archbishop, (not sure), in Illinois, USA, who has cancer (I’m not sure of his name) but he had been quoted as saying “I will die in my bed, my predecessor will end up being jailed and the predecessor after him, will die for his faith” and he was saying this about the United States of America; regarding the direction we’re headed for. “Lift High the Cross”! Pray for the Cardinal and all Catholics of the world—our faith will be tested and IS being tested now—if we are really doing our job as Christians, we Will be hated as Jesus Christ said he was hated by the world, so the same for His apostles. The servant is not greater than the Master.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
The time period for commenting on this article has expired.