Catholic school doubles down with anti-US envoy sign(Update)

Santo Domingo.- The Catholic school San Juan Bautista, whose directors placedthe controversial sign that bars the entry of US envoy James W. Brewster onWednesday placed another sign with the same message, but left the one which hadbeen sprayed with profanity in graffiti.

FILE. Dominican Republic ambassador to theVatican Victor Grimaldi on Tuesday conveyed to Pope Francis the Dominican EpiscopateConference’s letter, which rebukes US envoy James Brewster’s gay activism,noting that his promotion of same sex relationships violates the Constitution.

In his letter dated March 15 Grimaldi tells the pope that theCatholic bishops demand a halt to Brewster’s activism on concern that itscontrary to morality and decency and the Caribbean country’s Constitution aswell.

"Holiness: I am enclosing with this correspondence astatement issued by the Dominican Episcopal Conference requesting a curb of violationsby the Ambassador of the United States of America to the Constitution of theDominican Republic which states that marriage is between a man and a woman,"says Grimaldi in his missive.

On Monday the bishops asked the government to use diplomaticmechanisms to lodge a formal protest against Brewster alleged abuses inDominican territory.

"In recent years we have seen again and again how Mr.Ambassador, James Brewster, has overstepped his functions, showing littlerespect for the customs of our society, and violating both the Constitution ofthe Republic as well as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations thatgoverns the current international diplomacy and was ratified by the UnitedStates and the Dominican Republic," the bishops said.

Opposition to the US ambassador’s presence took an evensharper turn on March 7 when a group of citizens posted a petition for his recallon the White House website. The petition surpassed 30,000 signatures, but requires100,000 to generate a response.

The row reaches and icon catholic school

On Tuesday the icon Catholic school Instituto San JuanBautista, in the upscale Bella Vista sector, posted a sign that reads: Theentry of the ambassador of the United States is prohibited.

Overnight the sign had been sprayed with graffiti, and profanity, whichwill likely escalate the row that now includes the Holy See.