After Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City must be recognized in other states and that same-sex couples could adopt, the Archdiocese of Guadalajara claimed that same-sex marriage was worse than Mexico's drug war.
People who cannot tell the difference between cold-blooded murder and two people building a family are not fit to be a part of any normal, human, ethical discourse in the twenty-first century. They have no moral compass at all.
And it gets better. In response to the Court's adoption ruling, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara added, “Would you want to be adopted by a pair of faggots (maricones) and lesbians?” “His Eminence” further claimed, without evidence, that Mexico's Supreme Court justices were bribed by the Mexico City mayor. Making things up also seems to be a Catholic value.
The Archdiocese's comparison and Iniguez's hateful rhetoric should not be seen as abberations. They are an extension of Pope Benedict's hyperbolic, fear-mongering characterizations of same-sex marriage and homosexuality. Benedict has called same-sex marriage as among “some of the most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good today” and a threat to creation.
Rome has criticized neither the comments by Iniguez, nor the comments by the Archdiocese. And the Bishops' Conference of Mexico stands by them:
We lament that in manifesting these concepts to the public, there exist those who respond with recriminations and threats, claiming this is intolerant, when tolerance is supposed to ensure that we call all express our opinions and positions. For this reason, we express our solidarity and our feelings to Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera and Juan Sandoval Iniguez about this delicate issue.
Iniguez refers to gay men as maricones and an Archdiocese spokesperson says LGBT people are worse than murderers, and they're the victims of “intolerance”. We're familiar with this kind of “flip-of-the-script” in the United States, as well. It is always significant when the Roman Church hierarchy does not respond to a hateful comment (or gives implicit support, as in this case), because they would certainly censure a supportive comment from a prelate very quickly.
Most importantly, comments like these are a reminder that despite desperate claims to the contrary, opposition to gay rights is fundamentally about bigotry and hate.
Brian Rainey (MDiv) is a PhD student in Religious Studies at Brown University. His areas of focus are Hebrew Bible and Assyriology.
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