Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – On Friday, January 22, Pastor Eduardo Rangel Hernandez wrote a public letter to Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera. also addressed to all the evangelical churches, where, after being presented as representative of the Committee of the Union of United Pastors in Mexico (an organization that unites all evangelical groups in Mexico), he states that every day they receive letters and messages of the various evangelical churches Mexico and many other countries to encourage the union with the Catholic Church to defend the Word of God, on the topic of homosexual marriage, and also adoption by those couples. "I ask you all - writes Pastor Rangel Hernandez - to pray for our brother, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, and give him our full support, so that in his ministry he may continue to defend the Gospel values, before a society that criticizes him and attacks him."
As Fides has learned, on January 21 a group of representatives of the Mexican government (Marcelo Ebrard and his PRD) approved the law that will declare gay marriage to be on par with marriage between a man and a woman, also awarding them the right to adopt children. The reaction was immediate from the religious groups. Catholics, Evangelicals and Orthodox came together to express total disagreement. It is still confronted with the so-called "cultural project" that combines abortion, eugenics, euthanasia and other situations that seek to expel religion from civil life. Religious groups have clearly stated that "a marriage, by natural right (and there is a natural marriage, not just the religious), consists of a man and a woman. This is the way to found a family, which is the basic cell of society."
The situation is very tense and the Mexican Bishops' Conference issued a statement reaffirming the doctrine of the Catholic Church on marriage and recall what Benedict XVI recently said: "There are in fact specific contents of Christian revelation that cast light on bioethical problems: the value of human life, the relational and social dimension of the person, the connection between the unitive and the procreative aspects of sexuality, and the centrality of the family founded on the marriage of a man and a woman. These matters engraved in the human heart are also rationally understandable as an element of natural moral law and can be accepted also by those who do not identify with the Christian faith." (Audience with participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 15/01/2010). The local press, which has been documenting these events, demands respect for democratic freedom of expression and respect for religious authorities. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 25/01/2010)
