Cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez (Photo via Wikimedia Commons by Starus)
Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo referred to James “Wally” Brewster as “maricón” or “faggot” in Spanish during a press conference in the Dominican capital on June 26.
Obama on June 21 tapped Brewster, a Human Rights Campaign board member who is also an LGBT co-chair for the Democratic National Committee, to represent the U.S. in the Dominican Republic.
Daniel Foote, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, defended Brewster’s nomination in a brief statement to reporters on June 29.
“Brewster arrives as an ambassador,” Foote said, as reported by the Associated Press. “He’s not coming here as an activist for the gay community.”
López, who was among those rumored to potentially succeed Pope Benedict XVI after his surprise resignation in February, has previously used homophobic slurs to describe gay men.
He described gay men as “faggots” in a 2007 interview with a Dominican newspaper.
López told the Associated Press in 2006 that gay tourists who visit Santo Domingo’s old city are “social trash” and “degenerates.” He said during a 2010 interview with the Dominican newspaper Listín Diario that a Santo Domingo park in which gay men and lesbians gather had become “a space where all types of insolences and vulgarities abound.”
Dominican LGBT rights advocates have criticized López’s comments against Brewster.
“We are not questioning the exercise of faith; the exercise of faith is a necessity and a human rights,” Leonardo Sánchez, director of the Santo Domingo-based group Amigos Siempre Amigos, told the Dominican newspaper 7 Días on June 28. “What we are questioning are the attitudes of those who use their faith to incite violence.”
The Associated Press reported that Rev. Cristóbal Cardozo of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity and other religious leaders have also spoken out against Brewster’s nomination.
Buzzfeed reported an advisor to President Danilo Medina said the Dominican government approved Brewster’s nomination before the Obama administration announced it.
The hypocrisy is mind boggling. He represents a church that teaches love and compassion yet he engages in vicious personal attacks. I wonder if he is a closet homosexual. From past experience we have seen that many people who engage in verbal gay bashing are frequently deeply closeted gay men. Unfortunately, if you get rid of all the pedophiles and the hypocrites there would be no one left to run the Catholic Church.
@Mike W. get rid of all of them, close down the cult and distribute the money to the people they have harmed.
Lopez is just Like almost all United States archbishops. They are the most anti gay vile closeted worthless piles of evil in the world. At the most recent synod in Rome the U.S. archbishops were the ones fighting pope Francis on anything positive about gays. These men (closet cases) are nowhere near loving Christians. And to be honest many of them are only loving if they are trying to lure a very young boy to have sex with them. I’m a married gay Catholic man and love Jesus. However, I despise the catholic church for is relentless hatred towards the gay community and women. I have no doubt that the archbishops in the U.S. Would love to see every gay man killed just because of their sexual orientation. Get prepared most of you priest in the catholic church because you’re going to hell for unwarranted hatred towards innocent gay men. I hope you’re happy in your daily life of hate.
Good for him… Like Trump, we have to stop with all the P.R. B.S. and call a spade a spade… forget about feelings and that minefield that the libturds want to engage as the foundation for dialogue… lets talk about arguments, lets talk about substance… NOT ABOUT FREAKING FEELINGS GETTING HURT… the morality of the nation is going to hell and people are worrying on the word that is being used… EFF THAT!