ROME, JUL 4 (ZENIT.org)

    Over one thousand people participated in a torchlight procession organized in a spirit of reparation and protest against "Gay Pride" by the Catholic group Centro Culturale Lepanto (Lepanto Cultural Center). The participants formed a procession which left the of St. John Lateran's Square and processed to Piazzale Numa Pompilio where professor Roberto de Mattei, president of Lepanto, briefly addressed the participants explaining the purpose of the demonstration. At midnight the procession continued to the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Divine Love, 10 miles outside the city, where they arrived at dawn.

    Among the participants of the procession, which had at its head a large banner reading "In defense of the natural and Christian order," were male and female religious, priests, and people from all walks of life, including several politicians.

    Many other Italian and foreign personalities, unable to attend, sent in their formal support. Among them were Maronite Patriarch Harb Chucrallah and Archbishop Custodio Alvim Pereira, who on July 1st, the same evening, celebrated a solemn Mass in one of the main squares in Lisbon for the participants' intentions. Numerous monasteries and abbeys in Italy and abroad joined in prayer and adoration at the same time, in particular the Benedictine abbeys of Notre Dame de Triors and Notre Dame de Fontgombault.

    "With Gay Pride", Prof. Roberto de Mattei declared in his keynote speech, "the practice of homosexuality is transformed into a theory and cultural movement, becoming homosexualism.' The watchword is that of a movement from being hidden to being visible, from the sense of guilt to that of pride, from the homosexual catacombs of shame' to the homosexualisation of society, following a route analogous but contrary to that which led the Christians, after the persecutions, to build the great Christian civilization which we have left behind. Having come out of the catacombs,' homosexual militants want to force the Catholics back into them. The anti-Christian intolerance which animates them explains why the Colosseum is their symbol."

    "This homosexual rally aims at exercising a propagandistic pressure on European and worldwide laws, in order to introduce a new crime, a new offense, that of homophobia -- the crime committed by those who believe in a natural and Christian family, those who believe in a natural and Christian order. The homophones' deserve nothing less than the gladiators and the wild beasts," remarked De Mattei.

    "We, not them," added De Mattei, "are the victims. We, not them, are the marginalised and the discriminated against. We are reacting because we feel under attack. Tonight with our voice and with our protest, we are defending Christian civilization which is under attack and the Church, whose honour has been gravely insulted. In the silence of this night we want our voice to be primarily a humble and supplicant one that raises itself to God and history to ask pardon for all the outrages, blasphemies, and sacrileges that will be committed during this week's Witches' Sabbath.' "

    De Mattei concluded, "It is therefore a voice of reparation and of penitence, a penitence which forms part of the daily battle of those who fight to be coherent both in public and in private with their vision of the world. Victory is the aim of every battle however. We have the rational and moral certainty of this victory, which arises from the vitality and the power of the Christian message."

    Italian bishops and theologians agree with the need to respect all persons, but reject the "methods of shouting" that are typical of the expression of "Gay Pride," which is taking place in Rome. "The Church respects homosexual persons, but cannot cease to reaffirm its objectively negative judgment on homosexual behavior," Basilio Petra of the Florentine Theological Study, said.

    "'Gay Pride's' methods of shouting seem almost like a confrontation with the Jubilee, despite the fact that for a long time the Church has stressed the highest respect owed the homosexual person along with pastoral concern to help him in the way of faith," stated theologian Bruno Forte, is a member of the International Theological Commission.

    Auxiliary Bishop Enzo Pelvi of Naples believes that the real purpose of the protest march is "to change the norms of civil legislation."

    Fr. Renzo Pegoraro, secretary general of the Padua Lanza Foundation said that "Spectacular manifestations are of no use. They do not help to understand the problem, or find solutions that keep the person's dignity in mind."

    For his part, Fr. Giampaolo Dianin, Padua diocesan delegate for the Pastoral Care of Families, called for an end to "reciprocal prejudices without abolishing the Church's moral principles." ZE00070402 ZE00070420

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