Paraguay's Prolific Padre

The Latin American front page story on the international media last week? Fernando Lugo's paternity suits.

Every news outlet, from Le Monde to O Globo carried the story: Lugo publicly asked for forgiveness in having sired a child with Viviana Carrillo, age 26. The child is now nearly two years old. Following her suit, Lugo accepted paternity and the child now bears his last name.

According to court records, the affair with Carrillo started when she was sixteen years old and he was bishop of San Pedro while he sometimes stayed at the home of her godmother, where she lived. Bishop Ignacio Gogorza of Encarnación revealed that Lugo had administered the sacrament of Confirmation to Carrillo. The court papers state their relationship was already in progress.

In his apology, Lugo stated (my translation),

"I am a human being, and therefore nothing human is alien to me."

Whether Lugo was trying to be erudite or inadvertently humorous I am not sure, since it is almost a direct quote from Terence (ca. 190-160 BC),

Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.

Humorous because in Spanish a puto can mean a very promiscuous man. He probably doesn't expect that many would be in on the pun, after all, how many people can recognize a quote in Latin, aside from high-level Catholic clergy, and those, as Hans Gruber said, with the benefits of a Classical education?

Promiscuous? That appears to be the case with Lugo, who until last year was still subject to a vow of chastity, which he clearly ignored.