After Pope's statement, priest excommunicated for defending gays heads to court

07/31/2013 - 08h46

Driven by Pope Francis' remarks in Brazil last week about homosexuals, former Brazilian priest Father Beto, excommunicated this April after statements in support of gays, has decided to go to court to try to void his exclusion from the Catholic Church. Roberto Francisco Daniel, 48, known as Father Beto, hired lawyers and filed a restraining order on Monday against the Diocese of Bauru (329 km or 204 miles) from Sao Paulo).

He questions the manner in which he was expelled from the church by a court in which, according to him, he attended without knowing what was going on and without any rights to counsel. "I was treated like an adolescent. I have been publically ousted," he says. "This lawsuit is also for every Brazilian that understands that no institution can do this to a person."

Denise Guimarães - 3.mai.13/Folhapress

the bishop of Bauru, 70 year old Dom Caetano Ferrari, ordered a retraction due to interviews in which Beto spoke religiously about homosexuals and challenged the conservatism of the Catholic Church.

He had been studying the possibility of going to court since the time of his excommunication, but states that Pope Francis' stance drove him further. At the end of his visit to Brazil, the Pontiff made one of the boldest statements ever by a Pope regarding homosexuality. "If a person is gay and seeking God, who am I to judge him?" he stated. Before his banishment from the church, Beto had made a decision to ask for a temporary leave of his duties.

This occurred after the bishop of Bauru, 70 year old Dom Caetano Ferrari, ordered a retraction due to interviews in which Beto spoke religiously about homosexuals and challenged the conservatism of the Catholic Church. The Diocese of Bauru has yet to comment on the legal action. The official argument for the excommunication was that Beto "categorically denied to fulfill what he had promised at his ordination: fidelity to the Teachings of the Church and obedience to his lawful pastors".

EX-PRIEST

Former gay Argentinean priest, Andrés Gioeni, wrote a letter to Pope Francis after the Pope's statements on homosexuals. In the note, Gioeni, who is now an actor, said he left the priesthood after realizing his own sexual orientation and admit his "inability to exercise pastoral ministry in celibacy." He also praised the words of Francis and asked the leader of the Catholic Church to help his institution to adapt "to the new paradigms of the contemporary world".

Translated by STEVE HUGHES

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