SALTILLO, August 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Raul Vera López of the Diocese of Saltillo, Mexico, will be meeting with Vatican officials in late August or early September to discuss his affiliation with a homosexual organization that embraces the “gay” lifestyle and condones homosexual relationships.
The diocese’s spokeswoman, Maria Arriaga, confirmed the meeting yesterday to the French Press Agency (AFP).
The bishop will travel to Rome to “respond to questions that they will ask him about the work that he carries out currently with the community of San Aelredo,” Arriaga told the agency.
She added that “up to now, this will be the only motive of the visit. Perhaps when he is there it is possible that other topics will be discussed.”
Arriaga also claimed that Vera López “has denied that he has pronounced in favor of abortion, as his critics hold, who question him for asking for clemency for poor indigenous women incarcerated for abortions in certain Mexican states,” the AFP reports.
The statement appears to be a response to recent LifeSiteNews articles exposing the bishop’s leadership of two groups that participate in a pro-abortion “human rights” network and whose names appear on documents calling for the decriminalization and government provision of abortion.
In a recent interview with Vera López, the bishop appeared to defend the decriminalization of abortion, and a spokesman for one of the groups, the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center for Human Rights, acknowledged that his organization supports the government provision of abortion services.
The bishop has been under Vatican scrutiny following the revelation that the San Aelredo group, named after the English monk Saint Aelred, dissents from Catholic teaching on human sexuality and holds events that promote the homosexual subculture.
Although LifeSiteNews first documented the activities of the San Aelredo group in 2008, recent coverage by the Catholic news agency ACI Prensa was brought to the attention of Church authorities, resulting in an investigation.
Vera López will reportedly be meeting with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops.