HERMOSILLO, Mexico (LifeSiteNews) — Catholics in the Mexican Archdiocese of Hermosillo are outraged at a sacrilegious music video in which the Eucharist is mocked and the sanctuary and altar of a Catholic Church are desecrated.
In a clip of a music video filmed in the Guadalupan Sanctuary of Hermosillo, a rapper named Érick Raúl Alemán Ramírez, known artistically as Alemán or “Alemalandro,” dressed as a Catholic priest in a purple chasuble — the liturgical vestment a priest wears to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — is seen rapping in the sanctuary of the Church, then climbs on the altar while continuing his rap, and finally distributes marijuana joints to participants who approach the sanctuary in an explicit and extremely blasphemous mockery of Holy Communion.
The video clip of the rapper’s mockery of the priesthood and the Eucharist has been widely circulated on social media, drawing huge backlash. One comment on Facebook read:
It is a sacred place, regardless of what they are going to do, the house of God, a temple and consecrated altar should not be exposed and even if the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, it is the person of Christ who is there. I believe that rather than justification, we need to learn from these situations to prevent the unwise approaches of so many people who want to desacralize the sacred and disrespect Jesus in the Eucharist.
Although Alemán apologized in a video posted on the Facebook page of the Guadalupan Hermosillo Sanctuary, he nonetheless failed to acknowledge that his actions were an explicit mockery of the Eucharist and the priesthood, claiming “everything was done with a lot of respect and love,” and that his song was “super positive.”
“This video is to apologize to all those people who came to feel offended by the video. Everything was done with a lot of respect and love. An apology to Father Luis Armando who was the one who threw us the strike so that this video was put together. It’s a super positive song … It’s very different from what I’ve done before,” Alemán said.
In an attempt to answer the accusations of Catholics outraged at the scandal, the priest of the Guadalupan Sanctuary, Fr. Luis Armando González Torres, published a video affirming that he was the one to grant Alemán permission to record the music video.
LifeSiteNews has confirmed that The Temple House previously hosted a “simulated homoerotic orgy” in a former orthodox Jewish synagogue — and its owner is about to purchase St. Adalbert Catholic Church from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
SIGN: We cannot allow a Catholic parish to be sold to to the owner of the sacrilegious Temple House!
The Temple House has also been used to film essentially pornographic music videos, according to LifeSiteNews.
**STOP the Archdiocese of Chicago from selling a Catholic church to the owner of The Temple House, a den of sleaze and iniquity!**
This is nothing short of satanic and the Archdiocese of Chicago should know better than to sell this Polish-American church treasure to a company engaged in such degeneracy.
We cannot allow St. Adalbert Catholic Church to be turned into a venue for the kind of sin and sexual depravity pushed and promoted at The Temple House — so you must ACT NOW!
Talks between the Archdiocese of Chicago and Davidson are at an advanced stage and an engineering inspection is already underway.
SAVE this Catholic church from Dan Davidson, owner of The Temple House! Demand that the Archdiocese of Chicago STOP the sale!
MORE INFORMATION:
Host of simulated homoerotic orgy nears purchase of Chicago Catholic Church
He justified the permission with the claim that “the song has a positive message and seeks to reach the youngest,” without addressing the clear mockery of the Catholic priesthood and the Eucharist, or the desecration of the sanctuary and Church, which the Archdiocese then had to acknowledge, asking for prayers of reparation for the sacrilege.
Instead, the priest downplayed the offense, claiming things were being taken “out of context.” Attempting to explain away the sacrilege, he said that the altar is only seen for a few seconds, and that he reprimanded Alemán when he climbed on the altar, after which he got off and continued with the recording.
“I authorized Aleman to record that video in the facilities of our sanctuary. Social networks take it out of context, what is circulating about the altar. I reminded them that I authorized them to record in the sanctuary, but not on the altar, and they immediately got off,” the priest said.
Failing to acknowledge the gravity of the sacrilege of the entire performance being done in the sanctuary of a Church and implying that all that was merited by the rapper’s climbing on the altar was a simple correction in the moment, the priest offered what appears to be little more than self-justification and a begrudged apology to offended Catholics:
As Pope Francis said, the doors are open and we are no one to judge anyone’s life. He climbed the altar, I corrected him, and they got off. If there are offended Catholics, apologies. Have a nice day.
In a more serious acknowledgment of the sacrilegious and blasphemous nature of what happened, the Archdiocese of Hermosillo issued a statement of apology “to all the People of God of our Archdiocese and to all those people who felt aggrieved in their faith,” calling for prayers of “reparation” throughout the archdiocese. Fr. Javier de Jesu Gonzalez Mendoza, the diocese’s vicar general, wrote a letter titled “My house shall be called the House of Prayer”:
Lamentably, in the past few days one of our Churches was used for an activity not related to its fundamental end, not as a place of worship, of prayer, of devotion, and of piety.
We recognize that it was done without ill will and intention, but in an imprudent way, therefore Archbishop Ruy Rendón Leal, and all our Presbyterate, offer a sincere apology to all the People of God of our Archdiocese and to all those people who felt aggrieved in their faith, we assume and reiterate the commitment to watch and care, that these acts are not repeated in our Church, and to protect the sanctity of these places and especially the Holy Eucharist, taking the appropriate measures.
We invite you to join in prayer as a Church in the Archdiocese of Hermosillo in reparation for those places of worship that have been affected.
