Hot-Blooded Latins

Fernando Lugo is the president of Paraguay.  He was also, until recently, a Roman Catholic bishop.  He is also a liar and a fornicator.  The good news is that the Vatican has -- finally -- agreed to let him stop being a priest.

Per the Times, above, Lugo stopped working as a priest in 2006, when he began seeking elective office, and he petitioned for laicization.  This petition was rejected at first, and finally approved in July 2008 -- three months after Lugo was elected to the presidency.

Meanwhile, he is the father of a boy who turns two in May.  The child was conceived after the petition for laicization was submitted, but before it was approved.  This isn't quite as scandalous as it would have been had it all happened while Lugo was still serving, to be sure.  But it does raise some questions both about Lugo, 57, and his 26-year-old paramour.  How long had they been involved sexually before conceiving a child?  Will he marry her?  (We are tempted to ask why the bishop didn't use birth control, but perhaps he still wanted to follow some of the rules.)  

What concerns us most, however, is that the child's mother had to take Lugo to court, beginning proceedings which would have required him to submit to a DNA test, before he came clean.  To leave your ministry is one thing, and in this case arguably a good one for Lugo to have done.  But to abandon your child and his mother is another thing altogether.  It is, bluntly, a very serious moral failure, and raises questions about President Lugo's fitness for office..