YOU SLAP, WE KISS, MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 6:30 PM
TRIESTE – PIER IV
AGAINST THE HOMOPHOBIC POSITIONS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Together with a group of young people (students, workers, movement representatives, etc.), we have organized a flash mob at 6:30 PM on Monday, August 22nd at Molo IV. This is the opening day of the 62nd liturgical week, which will be held at Molo IV. This event, of national significance, will be attended on that day by numerous priests from across Italy and the Pope's Vicar General, Cardinal Comastri. We want to exchange a gay or lesbian kiss, a sign of love and affection, to counter the homophobic hatred that the Catholic Church in Italy fuels daily. However, those who do not wish to kiss can participate with posters or other materials (creativity is welcome). This initiative aims to be a moment of civil protest against those in Italy who are blocking legitimate demands for the recognition of LGBT rights, impeding the necessary legislative evolution that is now the heritage of most European states.
LET'S DEMONSTRATE AGAINST
► a Church that presents, based on Sacred Scripture, "...homosexual relations as acts of grave depravity," declaring that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They preclude the sexual act from the gift of life. They are not the fruit of a true affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357).
► a Church that affirms that "the practice of homosexuality is seriously threatening the life and well-being of a great number of people" (J. Ratzinger, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons)
► a Church that openly opposes, and unfortunately successfully, legislation that provides for the recognition of the rights of homosexual couples, relegating Italy to the bottom of the European Union
► a Church that contributes to burying any legislative initiative that seeks to introduce an aggravating circumstance to crimes motivated by homophobic and transphobic hatred and to protect victims
► the Vatican opposed the universal decriminalization of homosexuality presented at the UN
► Archbishop Crepaldi of Trieste, who calls a family made up of two homosexuals "mortifying"
WE DEMONSTRATE FOR
► the recognition of the rights of homosexual couples, as occurs in other European Union states
► the extension of the Mancino Law to lesbian, gay and transgender people who suffer the inequality of not being protected, as they are victims of homo/transphobia
► live in a secular democratic state founded on the Constitution which in article three establishes the equal social dignity of men and women without any form of discrimination
► condemn and reject any form of social stigma against lesbians and gay men that could fuel the increasingly widespread homophobic climate in Italy.
