From "Unità" of December 28, 2004 by Andrea Carugati
Cohabiting couples: Caffarra reopens the dispute
«"Don't equate gay marriage and cohabitation." Lo Giudice: "A pre-modern crusade."»
BOLOGNA The Christmas truce between Archbishop Carlo Caffarra and the secular soul of the people of Bologna lasted only a couple of days
Carlo Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna
It was the day before Christmas Eve when the archbishop, meeting the journalists, had drawn from one of the most beautiful pages of Guareschi to launch a conciliatory message, recalling the Peppone who was moved by holding the statue of the Child Jesus. And he invited his fellow citizens to "feel the warmth of God in their hands." There was also a politically charged passage about weapons "which must fall from the hands of man, so that he may hold the hands of others.".
On Boxing Day, however, Caffarra changed his tune. He returned to what Franco Grillini called his "obsession": homosexuality. In his homily at the Meloncello Church, the bishop addressed the issue of marriage and other unions, once again attacking the idea of extending rights to de facto couples, a proposal already described as a "lethal metastasis" by the Bologna supplement of Avvenire.
«One of the reasons why a strategy is being put in place to equate homosexual marriage and cohabitation – said Caffarra – is that often the specific and specific richness of the’being-man, of being-woman"Above all, the mystery of femininity is disfigured and violated in its specific human richness." "In the divine plan, there is an inseparable connection between marriage and family," the archbishop continued, "the only worthy and just way to give birth to human life; the original place for educating the human person is the conjugal community created between man and woman by marriage.".
Caffarra then addressed the issue of the right to life: "The dignity of the child today is seriously undermined. First, because the absolute right to life is no longer affirmed from the moment of conception: what is morally murder has been called a right." "But also serious," he continued, "is the increasingly widespread attitude toward conception, seen either as an evil to be avoided because it impedes one's subjective fulfillment, or as a good needed for one's happiness. In both cases, the person, even before being conceived, is seen as already related to and ordered toward his or her own self-fulfillment: he or she is exploited.".
The reaction was immediate Franco Grillini, Democrats of the Left MP and honorary president of Arcigay: "We still see women as wives, mothers, and servants of men: these are backward, discriminatory, and anachronistic positions," he said. "There is no conflict in terms of law and rights between traditional heterosexual families and de facto couples, including same-sex couples. Indeed, in all countries where legislation extending rights to all families has been passed, we have witnessed a general benefit and a marked improvement in social cohesion and civil coexistence for all. In Europe, Italy risks remaining the only country without recognition of the rights of de facto couples.".
«"While the archbishop makes ideological speeches," Grillini continued, "we talk about hospital care, housing rights, rent transfers, inheritance rights, mutual moral and material assistance. The archbishop should explain to us how all this, which is a given in Europe, can even remotely be considered a problem for heterosexual families.".
He also spoke on the topic yesterday Sergio Lo Giudice, president of Arcigay and a Democratic Party (DS) city councilor in Bologna: "It's deeply regrettable," he said, "that the Archbishop of Bologna persists in his pre-modern crusade against gay and lesbian people, who demand nothing more than the recognition of their emotional relationships through an institution, that of the PACS (Civil Solidarity Pact), different and distinct from marriage." "It seems to me," Lo Giudice said, "that there are other issues, from growing poverty to the tragedy of war, that deserve such consistent attention from the pastor of the Catholic Church in Bologna.".
From "Unità" of 28.12.04 by Luca Bottura
Archpriests
The Bishop of Bologna, Carlo Caffarra, yesterday tackled an unusual topic: homosexuality. Not content with his website—which cites it 282 times, as noted by the excellent Grillini—he exploited the family celebration to reiterate that "Gay unions are not marriage." Caffarra then equated gay couples with de facto couples with children, condemning both. By transitive property, having a child but not being married, I too am part of a gay couple. Now that we have this common ground, can I ask Arcigay for a favor? That damn Salara music, can you turn it down a bit? Sunday night I felt like I had Tony Esposito on my pillow, with all his dick-thumping percussion. And I didn't sleep until 5:00 a.m. Damn. Thanks everyone.
