A statue of Saint Anne teaching the Blessed Virgin Mary, Divino Salvador Church, Seville, Spain.
Sunday, July 26, was the feast of Saint Anne, patron saint of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the capital of Spain’s Canary Islands. On that day, the celebration of the mother of the Virgin Mary took an unexpected turn, which shocked the faithful.
At dawn, a small crowd of around 500 gathered in front of the Cathedral of Saint Anne. They didn’t come to celebrate the feast of the city’s patroness. Instead, they made a pagan show promoting the homosexual movement.
Directed by the American photographer Spencer Tunick, they stripped naked and painted their entire bodies with rainbow colors, forming together the colors of the homosexual pride flag with the cathedral as a backdrop.
According to the daily El País, from Madrid, the event was called “Gran Spectrum.” It is described as “an intervention that … aims to vindicate the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community within the framework of the Culture & Business Pride 2026 festival, organized by the Gran Canaria Island Council and the Government of the Canary Islands.”1
Tunick—who organizes these types of events worldwide—also promotes homosexuality. In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he told the press:
“I’m so happy for all the people who came and participated, that they came together and were able to create beautiful sculptural works with me that covered a wide range of themes: queer identity, as well as LGBTQIA+ values, that is, inclusion in art, in equality, and the mere freedom to be in public and among your neighbors.”2
Support from the Bishop
It is shocking that a group of people in a Catholic country would practice nudism in the public square, in front of a Catholic cathedral, in support of the homosexual movement. Even more shocking, the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of the Canary Islands, Bishop José Mazuelos, approved of the initiative.
According to the publication Canarias7:
“Mazuelos insisted to journalists that not only is he not against this artistic intervention, but that he supports it to the extent that he understands that everything that is marketing for the city is good.”3
Naturalism: Denial of Original Sin
Bishop Mazuelos also made it clear that he saw no problem with nudism, according to a statement to El País:
“I don’t have any problem,” he says. “When we go to the beach, we see naked bodies, don’t we?”4
In this statement, the Canarian prelate implicitly denies Original Sin. After the fall, man lost the gift of integrity, which made concupiscence entirely subject to reason. Hence, Adam and Eve were naked “and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25), but after the sin, “they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.” (Gen. 3:7).
Our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us from the guilt of Original Sin, but He did not restore in us, as a general rule, the gift of integrity. Man must fight against the impulses of his passions, especially sensuality.
The Council of Trent in Session V dealt with Original Sin and made it clear that, “by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in Baptism, the guilt of Original Sin is remitted.” However, it also teaches, “in the baptized there remains concupiscence, or an incentive (to sin); which, whereas it is left for our exercise, cannot injure those who consent not, but resist manfully by the grace of Jesus Christ; yea, he who shall have striven lawfully shall be crowned.”5
That is why the Church always recommends care in the relationship between the sexes, custody of the eyes and modest clothing that is dignified. Modesty in dress and action safeguards chastity.
To imply the immorality on the beach somehow diminishes concupiscence is disconnected from reality and a denial of Church teaching and the Redeemer’s warning: “Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).
In addition, this public action favored the homosexual movement, which, similar to the Communist Party of old, is spreading throughout the post-Christian world, as Our Lady warned at Fatima.
Saint Alphonsus: Impurity Takes the Greatest Number to Hell
Bishop Mazuelos’s scandalous statements contradict what Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, a Doctor of the Church and Prince of Moralists, says.
As an introduction to the Treatise on Chastity, the Saint writes the following words:
“[S]ince this matter is the more frequent and abundant in confessions, and, on account of which a greater number of souls fall into hell, I do not hesitate to assert that everyone who has been damned was damned on account of this one vice of sexual impurity (or, at least, not without it).”6
The Bishop Has No Fear of Punishment
The bishop of the Canary Islands does not appear to fear a rebuke from Rome for these scandalous statements or for tolerating blasphemy in front of his cathedral on the feast of the Patroness, Saint Anne.
In fact, the number of bishops and priests making statements opposed to Catholic morality and favoring the homosexual movement only increases. They continue unpunished.
“Blessed Are the Clean of Heart: For They Shall See God”
The reward for those who love and guard their purity is the greatest one can receive: to see God for all eternity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord says: Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
This perennial Church teaching has always held that seeing God is the greatest happiness one can possess: the path to eternal bliss.
By minimizing or implicitly denying the seriousness of sins against chastity, the angelic virtue, the prelate of the Canary Islands leads the flock not to happiness but eternal damnation for “[h]e that committeth sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
On the contrary, Sacred Scripture praises those who keep chastity: “O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men” (Wisdom 4:1).
Photo Credit: © akturer – stock.adobe.com
Footnotes
- Guillermo Vega, “Desnudos frente a la catedral Spencer Tunick reivindica la inclusión LGTBIQ+ en una acción en Las Palmas,” El Pais, July 26, 2026, https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-07-26/desnudos-frente-a-la-catedral-spencer-tunick-reivindica-la-inclusion-lgtbiq-en-una-accion-en-las-palmas.html.
- Guillermo Vega, “Desnudos frente a la cathedral…”
- Gaumet Florido, “El amanecer desnudo de la plaza de Santa Ana despierta a Vegueta y enfada a la Iglesia,” Canarias7, July 26, 2026, https://www.canarias7.es/canarias/gran-canaria/amanecer-desnudo-plaza-santa-ana-despierta-vegueta-20260726082851-nt.html.
- Geillermo Vega, “Desnudos frente a la cathedral…”
- Council of Trent: Fifth Session, DECREE CONCERNING ORIGINAL SIN, https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/trent/fifth-session.htm.
- St. Alphonsus Liguori C.SS.R., Theologia Moralis, tr. from Latin by Ryan Grant (Post Falls, Ida: Mediatrix Press, 2018), vol. II, book IV, p. 465.