Catholic Church of Mexico: President Peña Nieto "Betrayed Us"

The sour relationship between Peña Nieto and the Mexican Catholic Church could make a dent in the elections of 2018. (Proceso) — The sour relationship between Peña Nieto and the Mexican Catholic Church could affect the upcoming elections. (Proceso)

The feud between President Enrique Peña Nieto and the Catholic Church has gone from bad to worse.

According to latest polls, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has fallen to a shocking third place after being overtaken by the leftist National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) and the National Action Party (PAN).

The clergy plays an important role in Mexico, the country with the second largest population of Catholics in Latin America. Both Peña Nieto and the PRI are already excluded from religious sympathy, at least according to influential priest Hugo Valdemar Romero. He said told the magazine Proceso the president had “betrayed us.”

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“By legalizing gay marriage, Peña Nieto betrayed the Church and Pope Francis,” he said. “This is a stab in the back. Telling children that sex can be changed without permission of their parents is totally abhorrent.”

Romero said Nieto used the Catholic Church to marry actress Angelica Rivera, which increases suspicions that the wedding was totally false, as it did not comply with the rules established for carrying out a normal marital bond.

“Peña Nieto used the Catholic hierarchy to introduce Angelica Rivera to then-Pope Benedict XVI; then to perform their religious wedding in the cathedral of Toluca and later to bring Pope Francisco to Mexico,” the priest said.