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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Spain
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Gay priest defies suspension
Bishop and priest both profess surprise
An openly homosexual Catholic priest has announced that he plans to continue in active ministry, despite being suspended by his bishop, the London Times has reported.
Father José Mantero announced his homosexuality in a gay magazine, adding that he saw no contradiction between his homosexual activity and his priestly function. “It’s perfectly natural,” he said; “there are thousands of us.”
Father Mantero, of Valverde del Camino parish in the southern Huelva province, was featured in an article in the magazine Zero, in which he challenged the Church’s teachings on homosexuality, the celibate priesthood, and sex outside of marriage. He said he believed that he should be allowed to continue to be a priest despite his opposition to the Church’s teachings.
Bishop Ignacio Noguer Carmona of Huelva responded with an open letter to Mantero saying that the priest had placed himself “outside the discipline of the Church on a subject of extreme gravity and scandal for the faithful.” He added, “This obliges me, not without deep regret, formally to withdraw all ministerial faculties from José Mantero.” The bishop said he had tried unsuccessfully to contact Mantero for days, but the facts were so clear that he was obliged to apply the Church’s law in any case.
The bishop told reporters that he was “tremendously surprised” by the priest’s revelations. A spokesman for the diocese added that Father Mantero should leave the priesthood, since he was obviously at odds with the teachings of the Church regarding priestly celibacy and homosexual activity.
The suspended priest took a very different attitude toward the controversy. He told a radio audience that he was disappointed by the bishop’s reaction, since he had hoped the magazine interview would begin a process of negotiation on Catholic teachings, “so that one day homophobic statements disappear from the Church.”