The second priest who declared himself gay in Spain in the Zero magazine dies

The priest José Mantero starred in 2002 a cover in the magazine Zero

GAYLES.TV.- José Mantero, the priest of Valverde del Camino (Huelva), has died at 55 years of age after a few days hospitalized because of a heart condition. This priest starred in one of the most famous covers of the disappeared Zero magazine when in 2002 he stated «I thank God for being gay«.

Said owner cost him that Bishopric of the province of Huelva suspend him "a divinis", after which he was removed from the parish. Despite the expulsion, the Valverdeños always considered him their cure. Huntsman launched the blog «The Gospel according to Saint Mantero », where he wrote his thoughts. The last entry was on July 11, under the title of "Our sex who art in heaven".

He always claimed the need for the church to accept the gay community over gestures like the one Pope Francisco, of which he said that he starred in a papacy «cosmetic and populist«. His texts strongly criticized the church's obsession with sex: «I do not find people more obsessed with sex, with sex, for sex than the various professionals of the various religions. Everybody. All. Most of them, in their feverish obsession, intend to redirect something natural, desirable and divine - pleasure - to something eventual - procreation. His weapon, which even those who are immersed in the gay way of life play the game, is the artificial sex-love equation. He Sex without love, like that, would be bad, sinful, perverse. Sex with love - for them, the only true - would only be legitimate if it is animated by the will to procreate, to 'participate in the creative power of God,' they tell us. And they stay so wide, at least facing the gallery; because, afterwards, the procession goes inside. Excuse me«.

The first priest to come out of the closet openly was the Carmelite Antonio Roig, whose words in the book «All parks are not paradise»(1977) earned him expulsion from the order. In case of José Mantero got more media hype for being cover. More recently we also find the prelate Krzysztof Charamsa, who introduced his partner in public, only hours before the Vatican I showed him the exit door.