Mexico's Most Unconvetional Bishop

Gatopardo has a long profile of Raúl Vera López, the notoriously liberal bishop from Saltillo, that makes for some great reading. Highlights:

Raúl Vera has not been tortured or exiled, but he has already taken precautions: his left wrist carries a bracelet with his name, his contact information, his blood type, and his antibiotic allergies: "So that the day they shoot me they know who I am", he tells me...

Among the Rafto recipients, Raúl Vera López is famous as a night owl and partier. And it's well earned: the bishop from Saltillo feels as comfortable in the buzz of a cantina as in the silence of his recliner, and as at home celebrating mass with prostitutes on Good Friday as he is discussing dogmas of faith with theologians from around the world. He is always conversing --whether with someone else or with himself-- and for that reason the small tasks of daily life, like dressing himself or parking the car, take forever.