✣ Italians protest against same-sex unions bill
What happened? Hundreds of thousands of people in Italy rallied in Rome to protest against a bill giving gay couples legal recognition and the right to adopt. The “Family Day” protest came ahead of a vote in parliament this month. Organisers estimated that two million people attended the event in the Circus Maximus, while journalists put the figure at 300,000. The most controversial clause in the bill would allow gay people to adopt the biological children of their partner. What the British media said The BBC pointed out that Italy is the “last Western nation to recognise same-sex unions” and that the country “has faced repeated complaints from the European Court of Human Rights over its stance on gay marriage”. The Guardian described it as Catholic Italy’s “last stand”, arguing that “it is no coincidence that while same-sex couples have been granted rights in other Catholic-majority countries, such as Ireland and Spain, the home of the Vatican remains the last country in Western Europe not to offer rights to gay couples”. The Daily Telegraph quoted Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who said politicians “would do well to listen” to the protestors. It was also reported that the Family Day website was hacked by the Anonymous group’s Italian branch. What the religious media said There was much focus on whether the rally was supported by the Vatican and Italian bishops. Commonweal magazine asked if there was a rift in the Church “between ‘Pope Francis Catholics’ and those who favour a more muscular response when ‘non-negotiable values’ (an expression Francis never uses) are at stake”. Francis, it was noted, had not “directly endorsed the Family Day; he has not appealed to Italian politicians or to Italian Catholics; and he has emphasised repeatedly that this is something in the hands of the Catholic laity.” But Massimo Gandolfini, a Family Day organiser, told John Allen of Crux that Pope Francis “rejected the idea that lay action should be dependent on ‘bishop-pilots’”.
