Spanish Bishop’s Resistance to Anti-Chastity Law Masks Deeper Modernist Apostasy

Spanish “Bishop” José Ignacio Munilla of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain, has denounced a new legislative bill in Spain that would criminalize so-called “conversion therapy,” claiming it constitutes “religious persecution” of Catholics with same-sex attractions who seek to live chastely. The bill, passed by the lower house of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, would impose prison sentences of six months to two years and professional disqualification for up to five years on anyone who “applies or carries out… acts, methods, programs, techniques, or procedures of aversion or conversion… intended to modify, suppress, eliminate, or deny their sexual orientation, sexual identity, or gender expression.” Munilla argued on Radio María Spain that “so-called conversion therapy doesn’t exist” and called it “an ideological construct of an anti-Christian lobby.” He further stated: “Deep down it’s religious persecution” and vowed: “We will not stop accompanying homosexual persons who seek the Church’s accompaniment in order to live chastely.” While Munilla’s defense of the Church’s moral teaching on chastity appears commendable on the surface, his entire discourse operates within the framework of the post-conciliar apostasy, rendering his protest ultimately impotent and symptomatic of the very disease he claims to oppose.