A Catholic Mass for LGBT+ in Italy. Who Knew



Christianity calls the time of the Old Testament and the supposed time of Jesus as "ancient." There were of course 300,000 years of human experience before the Jews and Christians. This could be a hundred or so generations of human experience. Experience in our own time suggest every conceivable gender definition ever experienced in human history took place over those generations. 

On February 2 each year gay and trans people from across Italy come to the Naples area where the variety of genders is celebrated by a Priest. This is to acknowledge and accept all people into the faith. 

This I-dare-you-to-stop-me kind of event is a staple of civil rights from early one. Martin Luther King dared to walk down a highway in the center of hatred-land. The world looked on with nerves on edge. The forces opposing him were hapless. 

In several places in Europe Catholic clergy are treating gay people with respect, contrary to church teaching. The Catholic hierarchy seems like the hapless Southern rednecks who thought of themselves as too tough to defy. King defied them anyway. Priests in Italy are doing the same.\

Italy is, of course, the host country of the Vatican. I used to assume this meant a place kind of run by the Vatican. I've seen polling, however, that the secular community is large and growing. That the world's greatest authority on sin and salvation is right there in Italy the message would be popular and powerful. Apparently not.

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