X’s profile of Rubén García de Andrés mixes many things: journalist, socialist, mayor of Torrecaballeros (Segovia), LGTBI, freedom, faith, brotherhoods, Holy Week. What for him is a combination that in some way defines him, does not seem to be well regarded by his parish priest or by the diocese of Segovia. , they have prohibited him from receiving communion for being gay and for living as a couple.
The same thing happened before to another homosexual couple from a neighboring town, Basardilla, where the same parish priest also serves. “We have been prohibited from taking communion and celebrating the Word, not because of our faith or our actions, but because we live with the person we love,” he explains of this same Sunday.
García de Andrés told EL PAÍS this Sunday by phone that the conflict with the diocese had been going on for a long time, although it was a new priest, who took office this summer, who has vetoed both him and the other couple.
The mayor of Torrecaballeros is a very active member of the parish and one of his services was to “celebrate the word” in neighboring towns. It is something that is usually done in rural areas or with few priests: when they cannot cope with a celebration, a layman shares readings from the Bible and distributes communion, which has been previously consecrated. Two years ago, the then bishop, César Agusto Franco Martínez, prohibited him from continuing to carry out this work. “At first they assured me that it was for political reasons, that my ideas were not compatible with the defense and dissemination of the Gospel, even though, unlike them, [los curas y obispos]I did not transmit political ideas at all. I asked to speak directly with him, who assisted me in a long meeting. The first thing they told me when they received me was to leave my cell phone outside. And they confessed to me that the reason was not exactly political,” he says, alluding to his sexual condition.
Then he didn’t say anything to avoid causing a stir, but on this occasion he has decided to make it public. When he found out that the priest withdrew communion from the other couple, he went to talk to him, ask for explanations and tell him that “that was shameful.” It all started, he says, because when this couple participated in the mass on January 5, the priest received several messages from neighbors complaining about two homosexuals reading in the church and receiving communion.
The response that García de Andrés received after his complaint was that the same situation applied to him and, after consulting with the bishop, he informed him that he was also banned from the sacrament. “It’s absurd, I’ve been living with my partner for years and the priest knew it because when he took office I met with him as mayor and I told him my situation,” he says.
He himself wrote to the bishopric asking for explanations, to which the bishop replied the following in an email to which EL PAÍS has had access: “Dear Don Rubén. I regret that I cannot clarify anything for you about a conversation in which I have not participated. Private conversations with my priests and diocesans are confidential and protected by professional secrecy. Regarding the conditions for receiving sacramental communion and the conditions for denying it, they are clearly set out in the Magisterium of the Church and it is the celebrating priest who must apply the criteria of discernment. This newspaper has tried, without success, to obtain the version of the Bishopric of Segovia.
The situation, explains García de Andrés, is this: “I cannot take communion because I am homosexual and live as a couple. And beware, I have been told what a different situation it would be if ‘I were only gay and followed a path of conversion’. Come on, if you are in the closet and you are more false than Judas, you can take communion and that’s it.”
García de Andrés regrets that “the spring of Francisco” has not reached the Church of his province. In December 2023, the Vatican, a decision that increased .
“Very affected”
Both the mayor and his family claim to be “very affected” by the situation. “It is very sad, I speak with serenity, but I have cried a lot because it does not seem fair to me and above all, it seems serious to me that we are returning again to something that we thought had been overcome, that emboldening of the inquisitive finger, that they go to the priest and tell them that This one has had an abortion or this one has done whatever. And the priest, instead of stopping him, goes with the story to the bishop, who makes these decisions. I wonder if they are going to generalize them for everyone, because there are many of us in this situation.”
Calvo, a member of the other homosexual couple who has been denied communion, relates something similar on Facebook: “The most painful thing is that now, those who were previously our family in faith, are pointing fingers at us. We are marked as different, as if loving this way separates us from God. We have even spoken to our families, assuring them that they do not have a problem, but that the problem is us. But what problem can a person have who loves, who takes care of his children, who follows the commandments of Jesus, who lives with the clear conscience of doing good?
The mayor of Torrecaballeros has decided not to go to mass this Sunday, he does not want to “put on a show”, even though he could go so that the priest can “take his picture and do what he has to do or say what he has to say in front of everything.” the world.” Now, he assures, he will have to live his faith privately “outside the Church”, because that is how it has been “imposed” on him.
