Gay priest sparks debate in Spain

By Jerome Socolovsky
Associated Press

MADRID, Spain — The first priest in Spanish history to openly acknowledge living an active homosexual life vowed yesterday to fight to make the Roman Catholic Church abandon what he called a "caveman mentality" and accept gays and lesbians in the pews and on the pulpit.

But the Rev. Jose Mantero first had to defend himself against what he described as a smear campaign by prelates and conservative opinion-makers since his confession scandalized the church and catapulted him to stardom in Spain.

"Being gay not only is not a sin, it's a gift from God. It's a gift from God equal to being heterosexual," the priest from the small southern town of Valverde del Camino told a packed news conference at a Madrid hotel. "If he created you gay, he wants you to be gay. At no point does he want you to regret being so."

Mantero, 39, revealed his homosexuality in an interview last week with the gay magazine Zero, saying he realized he was gay when he was 12.

The revelation has ignited a national debate on homosexuality and the requirement of celibacy for priests.

The bishop of Huelva, Monsignor Ignacio Noguer Carmona, prohibited Mantero from hearing confession.

Other clerics called Mantero "sick" and "abnormal" while an editorialist for a conservative newspaper said he was a publicity hound and called him a "fairground freak."

Mantero denied the news paper's allegations that he participated in gay events and Internet chats. While the newspaper said his Web site was plastered with links to pornography sites it did not mention the possibility of sabotage.

Homosexuality — severely repressed during the 1939-75 dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco — has been accepted in mainstream Spanish society only in recent years, after a senior army officer, several politicians and entertainment figures came out of the closet.