NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN CITY (CWNews.com) - Italian police prevented homosexual activists from entering St. Peter's Square on Wednesday to protest the Church's teaching that homosexuality is immoral and a disorder. The protest was to coincide with the one year anniversary of the date when a homosexual man set himself ablaze in the square.

      A police official at the entrance to the square told the group of about 15 protesters that they could not enter. "You cannot enter the square because it is a place of worship," he said. "There is nothing more central to Catholic worship than commemorating your dead," replied Sergio Lo Giudice, head of the Arcigay homosexual activist group. "All we want to do is enter the square and lay a wreath on the spot where our friend chose to kill himself to bring attention to the struggle for civil rights," Lo Giudice said.

      The two sides reached a compromise in which the protesters were allowed to place a wreath on a steel police barrier at the borderline that separates Rome from the Vatican. The homosexual group also handed out flyers that accused the Church of "cultural oppression" and remaining indifferent to Alfredo Ormando's self-immolation. "We are here because Alfredo chose to kill himself here ... the Vatican has a moral responsibility for the malaise in which many homosexuals live these days," Lo Giudice said.