In the eyes of God, all human beings are equal. However, the opinion that some human beings have of others is very different, in light of what happened last Saturday in the church of Nuestra Señora de la Luz in Guía de Isora, where, at mid-morning, a group of parishioners attended – many of them surprised – to an act of renunciation of homosexuality directed by the parish priest and in which, in addition, this was compared to serious crimes, such as rape.
The events were recorded in an audio to which this newspaper has had access and have been confirmed by official sources of the Bishopric of Tenerife, who claimed to have discussed the matter with the protagonist priest, who would have recognized the facts, although both the diocese and the priest declined to make further statements on the matter.
Full text of the resignation
The full statement of the renunciation reads as follows: “Do you renounce all lust, abortion, adultery, homosexuality, bisexuality, incest, rape, pornography, bestiality, promiscuity and prostitution? “To everything that you or other people have done to control, nullify or overflow your sexuality?” the priest asks the participants.
The context of all this was a meeting of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, held between 10:30 and 12:00, and in which what is called an act of Worship and Praise took place. Within this, a “liberation” prayer takes place with a section, renunciation, in which “the priest frees the individual from evil influences,” as described by several attendees.
“None of this means that the Charismatic Renewal is homophobic,” they emphasize. “We meet in different places and this never happens. It has only happened to us in Guía de Isora,” they say.
The aforementioned official sources confirmed that, indeed, and once they were in contact with the priest who was the protagonist of the audio, and of the prayer, he confirmed that “he usually carries out this act when there are meetings of the Charismatic Renewal in the parish, but he does not want to do so.” more statements.”
At the same time, the representatives of the diocese declined to comment on the events in question.
Participating parishioners emphasized the idea that “in ordinary masses, prayers of renunciation of sin are sometimes included in a generic way, but topics like this are never considered. “Why does Guía de Isora have to continue doing this?” they question, although they admit that “perhaps it is an issue of the Church itself, which should change the text.”
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is a Catholic movement officially approved by Pope Paul VI in 1975 and which maintains an excellent relationship with Pope Francis, who received 4,000 of its members at the Vatican in November.
Recently, Francis made statements in which he said that homosexuality “is not a crime” and added that “we are all children of God,” in addition to describing the laws that criminalize the LGTBI community as “unjust” and inviting members of the Church to work to put an end to them.
“This itself causes many people to distance themselves from the Church,” say some attendees at the Guía de Isora event. “In the Church – they insist – there is a great debate about these issues so that people from the LGTBIQ community do not feel discriminated against, even if they should be accepted or not in the priestly ministry.”
