Abortion advocate draws ire for dressing up as 'bishop'

Bogotá, Colombia, Feb 21, 2012 / 12:05 pm

Prominent abortion advocate Monica Roa, who helped legalize abortion in Colombia in 2006, posted a picture of herself on Facebook where she mocks the Catholic Church by dressing up as a bishop.

“This is more than just something humorous or a joke in bad taste, it’s actually disrespectful,” said Bishop Juan Vicente Cordoba, secretary general for the Colombian bishops' conference.

“It’s one thing to have different principles or ideas; it’s another to mock those in positions of authority or institutions, whether they are part of the Church or not,” he told CNA on Feb. 20.

Roa, who directs the Women’s Link International group which supports legal abortion, recently posted a picture taken last Halloween where she is wearing a miter and a purple chasuble.

She asked her followers to share their comments and to help her name her “costume,” with all of the replies directing insults against the Vatican and the Pope.

Local Catholics denounced the photo “not in a spirit of conflict, but because it was necessary to make a statement of disagreement with what she did. The Church must not be mocked in this way,” Bishop Cordoba said.

In her ongoing efforts to continue the legalization of abortion in Colombia, Roa is now targeting the country's Attorney General, Alejandro Ordonez Maldonado, for his public stance in support of life beginning at conception and traditional marriage.

Roa and other abortion advocacy groups in Colombia have launched a campaign against Ordonez's bid for reelection that includes a series of personal attacks.

Ordonez told the Colombian daily El Pais that the attacks against him demonstrate a kind of “Christophobia, which is manifested by attempts to drudge up moral failings.”

The attorney general noted that he is being criticized by a minority which ignores the beliefs of five million Colombians who voiced their opposition to abortion in August of 2011 by signing a petition calling for a constitutional amendment to protect the unborn.