Cardinal Juan Sandoval, Guadalajara’s loose-tongued archbishop, is facing a law suit after insinuating that Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard bribed the nation’s Supreme Court judges into voting in favor of allowing married same-sex couples in Mexico City to have the right to adopt children.
As the 9-2 vote was delivered, Sandoval, the second-most senior Catholic figure in Mexico, was quick to label the decision an “aberration.”
Then he dropped the bombshell that prompted Ebrard into filing a law suit against the prelate.
“Ebrard and international organizations paid off the ministers of the Court with ‘gifts,’” Sandoval alleged, without providing evidence. “I believe the judges don’t come to these absurd conclusions that are against the sentiment of the Mexican people if the motives aren’t very big. The great motive could be the money they receive.”
Ebrard, who is one of the left’s leading presidential hopefuls in 2012, asked Sandoval to retract the statement but the archbishop was unwilling.
“What was said has been said,” Sandoval told reporters.
Ebrard has filed a suit for “moral damage.” The case could take around six months to resolve.
“It’s very serious that a high-ranking member of a church tarnishes the Supreme Court,” said Ebrard. “What this gentleman has said, he’s going to have to prove.”
But Sandoval wasn’t finished there. He stunned the press corps on a visit to Aguascalientes by using offensive language to describe homosexuals.
“Who of you would like fags (maricones) and lesbians to be able to adopt?” the prelate asked reporters.
That statement earned the cardinal another lawsuit, as leading members of Guadalajara gay rights’ organization Codise marched down to the Interior Ministry (Gobernacion) office in Guadalajara to file a separate claim against Sandoval for inciting hatred towards minority groups. Codise is asking for him to be sanctioned for his behavior.
Meanwhile, hundreds are expected to congregate outside the Guadalajara Cathedral at noon on Sunday to protest Sandoval’s slighting of the gay and lesbian community. Five organizations are combining for the protest.
In addition, gay rights group Codise says it will form a human chain between the cathedral and the state government palace at 5 p.m. to represent the separation of Church and State.
Sandoval argues that research by the Mexican Institution of Sexual Orientation provided “scientific proof” that children can be harmed if adopted by gay couples.
“The family starts with the love of a man and a woman,” Sandoval has previously stated.
“There is no significant difference between heterosexual and homosexual parents,” Supreme Court Minister Arturo Zaldivar, who voted in favor of gay adoption, told El Universal. “The interests of the minor are paramount.”
Sandoval said that the decision “damages the Mexican family.”
Sexual diversity groups in Mexico have hailed the Supreme Court’s decision.
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