Against Gay Marriage, General Bergoglio Sent the Nuns in to Fight
Instead of challenging the powers head-on, the then-archbishop of Buenos Aires wrote a fiery letter to cloistered nuns. It was his way of "conducting politics." The account of a direct witness of that battle
by Sandro Magister
by Sandro Magister
ROME, November 15, 2013 – Pope Francis said so loud and clear in his agenda-setting interview with "La Civiltà Cattolica." The public battles over questions like abortion or homosexual marriage are not priorities for him.
This does not change the fact that the upcoming synod will be dedicated precisely to the issue of the family. And therefore to questions that are today among the most fiercely combated on the political terrain as well.
But there is also uncertainty among the bishops. In Italy, in the United States, in Spain - the countries where in recent years the public efforts of the episcopates over questions of life and the family have been the most combative - there are those who are pushing for greater detachment from political exertion. Following the example - it is claimed - of the pope.
Well then, what example did Bergoglio give, when as archbishop of Buenos Aires he found himself grappling with the approval of a law that permits persons of the same sex to contract marriage and adopt children?
It was 2010 when that law was approved in Argentina. Cardinal Bergoglio took a position against it in a form that he had studied thoroughly. Not with public declarations that would directly challenge the political powers, but with two internal letters to the Church: the first to the nuns of four Carmelite monasteries of Buenos Aires, and the second to a leader of the Argentine Catholic laity.
The twofold move by Cardinal Bergoglio naturally had a substantial impact on the political terrain as well. But the explanation that was given to it was that the cardinal intended with the two letters not to "conduct politics" but simply "to recall the teaching of the Church to all those who proclaim themselves to be Catholic, asking them to act accordingly."
This justification of the activity of Cardinal Bergoglio was presented in the Argentine parliament by a Catholic senator very closely connected to him, Liliana Negre, a member of the Peronist party and the first president of the Global Action Network of Legislators and Governors for Life and the Family.
Liliana Negre has recounted chapter and verse how the approval of that law came about in Argentina, in a book about Pope Francis published in the United States, with the testimonies of twenty persons who knew him very closely, Jesuits and others.
The then-archbishop of Buenos Aires was not in parliament, of coarse, when the law on gay marriage was approved. And yet the promoters of that law saw him as enemy number one, to be defeated at all costs, even by boycotting any sort of negotiation that would open the way to solutions acceptable to the Church.
Here is the account of those turbulent days, presented by a direct witness.
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BERGOGLIO, A LIVING MARTYR AND A HERO
by Liliana Negre
Cardinal Bergoglio was always a person that had a lot of courage and a lot of bravery to rise up before the powerful and say what he thought: the voice of those that did not have a voice was Cardinal Bergoglio. Overall, in Buenos Aires, it was a place with a high concentration of power, economic concentration, political concentration…like we say, "God is everywhere, but he meets in Buenos Aires." […]
I knew him when I was a Senator, I have had three or four interviews with him, but the relationship deepened through the Parliamentarians and Governors for Life and Family . He participated in that congress and he became close to the (pro-life) Argentinean legislators to greet us, to encourage us to keep working, to have courage, and after the issue of marriage between people of the same sex came up, which the Chamber of Deputies tried to pass quickly and when it arrived to the National Senate, and I was President of the Commission. […]
In this, then, the President was Cristina Fernández and her husband, the deceased ex-President Néstor Kirchner, was the National Deputy. […] Concerning the issue of same-sex marriage, the Kirchners had pointed to Bergoglio as the enemy, because logically he presented what the Church teaches in that respect. There was even a public rally in front of the Congress the afternoon before the approval of the law. That day, the Cardinal sent a letter to the President of the Council for the Laity of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The letter was read with his permission and so the Cardinal allowed his posture to be publically known and encouraged the laity to continue working and fighting for our values.
The Kirchners said that the Cardinal was coordinating the entire pro-family movement throughout Argentina. The Cardinal also sent a letter to the Discalced Carmelites of Buenos Aires. I am not sure why, the text started to circulate on the social networks: it contained not only a harsh criticism of the human catastrophe that the legalization of homosexual "marriage" would imply, but rather asked that they pray for the illumination of the Senators. On July 14, at 10 in the morning the debate began, which was very intense, and it finished without breaks on July 15th when we lost the vote.
We had sat down to start the debate with an advantage of 9 votes, and finally lost by 3. So, you can tell how terrible that was. The ex-President Kirchner, as (honorary) National Deputy, never went to the Chamber. He only went twice: when he was sworn in as deputy… and when he voted in favor of same-sex "marriage."
I remember that a Senator from the majority interrupted the session to make a very harsh criticism of Cardinal Bergoglio and spoke about the letter that he had sent to the Carmelites in Buenos Aires, in which the Cardinal said textually: "It is not a simple political fight; but rather the destructive pretension of the Plan of God. It is not about a mere legislative project – that is only the instrument – but rather a 'move' from the father of lies that intends to confuse and trick the children of God."
The letter said, moreover: "To the Senators: cry out to the Lord for his Spirit to be sent to the Senators that have to give their vote. That they not be moved by error or by changing situations, but rather according to what Natural Law and the Law of God show us. This was not ours, but rather God's. That they may assist, defend and accompany us in God's will".
The Majority Senator that read this letter was Marcelo Fuentes, who used very harsh epithets against Cardinal Bergoglio. It was a moment of a lot of tension because the session had a lot of grievances.
I was President of the Commission and as such, had the "no" voice against homosexual "marriage." We had censored a project that was supported by those that voted against marriage for people of the same sex, and it received, moreover, the support for a civil union project that was signed by 8 of the 15 Senators. That is what we looked for to have 80% commitment of the members of the Commission. In this group, there were Kirchnerist Senators, provincial parties, the Radical Civic Union and Peronism Federal Senators to which I belong. The ideas was to recognize some rights that same-sex cohabitants were asking for, like, for example, that the health care law be modified, that they be allowed to visit their partners, or to have the right to receive pensions.
That night, while there was a big rally outside the Senate, another letter from the Cardinal was read, the one directed to the laity, by the President of the Senate, violating all of the regulation of the Argentinean Constitution, I was notified, as President of the Commission, that it had been decided to annul the law project that had the support of 80% of the Senate, and the next day they would allow only a yes or a no vote for homosexual "marriage."
The tension that existed became even stronger. The Majority Leader told me that I was a Fascist, that I wanted to discriminate against homosexual persons like Hitler did to the Jews, that I only needed to put on the Swastika band. The situation caused me to cry, because I had been especially respectful, I had been very careful with my words. In the heat of the moment, during the early hours of the morning, I had to respond to all of these issues, but I especially wanted to reference all of the atrocities that had been said about the Cardinal, to which nobody had defended.
I can read what I said by noting what Senator Fuentes was going to explain: "The catholic Church responds to the Magisterium of the Church; that means that the Magisterium has a document and that document was issued by the Catholic Church in 2003. The document has as its title: 'Considerations about the projects of legal recognition of people in homosexual unions.' This is the position of the Catholic Church. So what Cardinal Bergoglio has done when he drew up this letter that he directed to the Carmelites, who are cloistered nuns, was to give an opinion in conformity with the internal norms of the Catholic Church. We must know to differentiate between things and defend the ministers of religion. Yesterday Cardinal Bergoglio sent a letter to that march of laymen directed to Dr. Carbajales, their president. That is a letter and another is the one he sent to the Carmelites."
I wanted to be clear that neither Cardinal Bergoglio nor other very valiant Argentinean Bishops were "intervening in politics," as the majority party criticized, but rather was reminding what the Church teaches to those that proclaim to be Catholic, and was asking that these Catholics act accordingly. […]
After they voted in favor of homosexual "marriage," the majority party said: "We brought down Bergoglio." They had tackled the fight for this law as if it were between them and Bergoglio. […] Cardinal Bergoglio was taunted, insulted, defiled. The things that I heard during those 24 hours of session about the Cardinal were unbelievable, and suddenly the Lord put him in that place as the Successor of Peter on Earth. That is why I believe that it is because of this that I said that he is a living martyr and is a hero.
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The book with the interview with Liliana Negre:
Alejandro Bermúdez (ed.), "Pope Francis, Our Brother, Our Friend", Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2013.