Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez, Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is calling on Ricky Martin, a popular singer to stop promoting the homosexual lifestyle on his American tour. Martin, who is a father, recently adopted a homosexual identity and uses “sex games” on his tour appearances. He has rejected the archbishop’s admonishment.

            Archbishop Javier del Rio of Arequipa, Peru, has told his people, “In no way can one vote for a candidate who has explicitly stated his or her intention to go against marriage, human life and the family” (LieSiteNews, April 12, 2011). His advice is equally crucial for citizens elsewhere.

            Chilean Cardinal Jorge Medina denounced the recent promise by President Sebastian Piñera to introduce “civil unions” for people with homosexual attractions. Piñera capitulated to heavy lobbying by the Homosexual Integration and Liberation movement (MOVILH). The civil unions would also give legal recognition to “common law marriages” of men and women. Both recognitions are blows against marriages (LifeSiteNews, June 3).

American bishops speak out

            In Providence, R.I., Bishop Thomas Tobin said in a recent interview that “civil unions are just another name for what would be same-sex marriage” (LifeSiteNews, April 13, 2011).

            In Denver, Colorado, Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote that “laws permitting same-sex civil unions are directly aimed at legitimizing homosexual behaviour” (LifeSiteNews, 6 April 2011).

            Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, told LifeSiteNews (April 15, 2011) that priests should not use concerns about “prudence” as an excuse to avoid speaking boldly on the immorality of homosexual acts. He said that it is demanded of priests that they present the Catholic Church’ teachings clearly. “Homosexual acts are intrinsically evil, and if one does them in full knowledge and consent, they are mortal sins and place one’s eternal salvation in the gravest of jeopardy” (ibid).

            Archbishop Chaput, in an address to University of Notre Dame pro-life students, admitted that there is disunity among Catholics on a number of moral issues because “there is no unity among the bishops” (LifeSiteNews, April 12, 2011). The bishops are not speaking clearly, together, on these issues, especially that of a pro-abortion Catholic receiving communion. He also told the students to be courageous in fighting for their beliefs. “Abortion is the foundational human rights issue in our lifetime.”

            Asserting his authority, Bishop Joe Vasquez has cancelled an event in his diocese that would have placed an outspoken pro-abortion advocate (an Illinois Democrat) at one of the Austin, Texas, parishes for a meeting about immigration. (See the report of a similar decision by Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast in C.I., May , 2011, p.21)