Italian Bishop Calls for "Recognition" of Homosexuals
- For the first time, the Diocese of Albano is holding a "prayer vigil" against homophobia and transphobia, recognizing the "suffering" these attitudes have caused within both the Church and society.
- This diocese wants to continue this effort alongside other dioceses in Italy, moving forward cautiously but deliberately, inspired by the recent Synodal process.
- The day when it is no longer necessary to hold vigils like this will be the day when every person is recognized - and I use this word with full awareness and deliberation - as a living, original, irreplaceable part of the Body of Christ.
- I do not wish to speak this evening of welcoming, but of recognition and full integration.
- Welcoming presupposes that someone arrives from the outside and is allowed in out of the generosity of others. But as the baptized, no one is a guest in this church.
- This vigil is necessary because we must help all of God’s people live an inclusive, non-sectarian faith that heals the wounds of hatred, prejudice, ignorance and superficiality with love, knowledge and brotherhood.
- We must ask God for forgiveness because there are still many people whose lives are wounded by the violence that begins intellectually, then becomes verbal, and finally even physical, which LGBTQ+ people experience in society.
- There are too many stories of exclusion; too many victims of gender-based violence; too many gay boys, lesbian women and transgender people rejected by their families, ridiculed, bullied and kicked.
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