Campaigners in Spain have called for the government to prosecute Cardinal Antonio Cañ­izares, who has denounc­ed the influence of gender ideology and what he called a “gay empire”. In a homily on May 13, Card­inal Cañizares, who is former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and current Archbishop of Valencia, said: “The family is being stalked today, in our culture, by endlessly grave difficulties, while it suffers serious attacks, which are hidden from no one. “We have legislation contrary to the family, the acts of political and social forces, to which are added movements and acts by the gay empire, by ideologies such as radical feminism, or the most insidious of all, gender ideology. “When the family is attacked or is diminished, the most sacred forms of human relationship are perverted.” According to LifeSiteNews, members of the Feminist Platform of Alicante formally asked the Spanish government to prosecute the cardinal for “inciting discrimination and hatred” through his sermon. Other organisations including the LGBT collective of Valencia said they too would file an official complaint with the Office of Hate Crimes. The Spanish Network for Refugees has also joined the call for Cardinal Cañizares to be prosecuted. The cardinal has previously been critical of open border immigration. The groups want the cardinal charged with apologia, a Spanish term for encouraging or defending a criminal act. In response, the cardinal asked whether it was “homophobic to defend the family”. He requested “objective” lawyers to assess whether what he said was “against the law” or homophobic. He also published his homily in full.