Salvini shows up, bishops stay away
ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Thousands of protestors across Italy are demonstrating against a draconian "homotransphobia" bill which threatens to criminalize the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality and transgenderism.
Prominent parliamentarians Matteo Salvini and Vito Comencini from the Lega party joined hundreds of Catholics and evangelicals in the Rome protest at Piazza Montecitorio Thursday, but the bishops were conspicuous by their absence.
"The danger of the bill getting through parliament is very serious," Comencini told Church Militant at the protest.
"The majority of the government is ideologically freighted, there is a strong LGBT lobby, and [former Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi's Forza Italia party had decided to yield, but we are determined to oppose the bill," he explained.
Comencini, a member of Italy's Parliamentary Commission for Foreign and Community Affairs, said that the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) had earlier written against the proposed bill and many bishops had spoken out against it.
Protestors tied a red gag around their mouths to symbolize the threat to free speech and held banners with the slogans: "Establishing a new crime is not needed and is wrong," "Freedom of expression for all," and "We remain free to think."
"In the midst of an unprecedented economic and social crisis, millions of starving families and businesses in difficulty, there are those in parliament who believe it is urgent to have a law on so-called homotransphobia," said Jacopo Coghe, vice president of Pro Vita and Famiglia addressing the gathering.
"Will it still be possible for a priest to quote Catholic doctrine on marriage and sexuality and teach it? Will it be possible to say again that the practice of the rented uterus is an abomination? Will it be possible for a parent to prohibit a child from participating in school activities promoting the gay agenda?" Coghe asked.
"For all these questions, the bill on homotransphobia has an answer. 'No,'" Coghe emphasized.
In a city brimming with clergy and religious, Church Militant spotted only three priests and four nuns at the event.
Speaking to Church Militant, Br. Manfredi Schmidt said that in normal circumstances he would "pray as much as I can and sometime more than I can."
"But now I am here to make my presence felt by protesting against the persecution that is intended by this law," said Schmidt, the only cleric to wear a cassock to the event.
Continued
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