Category Archives: vatican

Your bodies, their bigotry

Posted on June 14, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Amnesty International’s recent advocacy of abortion in the case of rape, incest or risk to the woman’s health has inevitably got up some clerical noses. One of the largest belongs to cardinal Martino, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for … Continue reading →

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Love is in the air

Posted on June 8, 2007 by Charles Lambert

The transmitters used by Radio Vatican to broadcast its message of eternal love and harmony are apparently so strong that people in the Roman suburb of Ponte Galeria, where the transmitters are sited, can hear Holy Mass when they answer … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on Family Day

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Last Saturday, over a million people (I’m quoting the organisers’ possibly over-generous estimate) gathered in Piazza San Giovanni, Rome, to assist the Vatican hierarchy in its dirty war against civil union legislation and, indirectly, the centre-left government. On the same … Continue reading →

Posted in church, civil union, family day, human rights, ratzinger, vatican | 1 Comment

Pontification

Posted on March 14, 2007 by Charles Lambert

A clique of sex-obsessed old men in the Vatican continues its offensive against civil union legislation (read DICO) by stigmatising the demonstration last Saturday in Piazza Farnese as carnivalesque, hysterical, a masquerade and so on. As one who was there, … Continue reading →

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Better a queer citizen than a paedophile priest

Posted on March 11, 2007 by Charles Lambert

The most provocative placard at yesterday’s DICO event was probably this one. But look at the man’s face. Could anything be sweeter?

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DICO day: impressions

Posted on March 11, 2007 by Charles Lambert

The day after, there’s the usual war of numbers: 20,000 according to the police, 80,000 for the organisers; La Repubblica‘s settled on 50,000. Whoever may be right (and I’d go with La Repubblica), Piazza Farnese was jammed with adults, children, … Continue reading →

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DICO? DICEVO…

Posted on February 23, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Prodi’s cobbled together a twelve-point list designed to hold the centre-left coalition together until the end of the legislation. It’s sufficiently vague to work for a while at least and, faced with the alternatives of a technical government or, even … Continue reading →

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Crisis? Just ask Giulio

Posted on February 22, 2007 by Charles Lambert

It was inevitable that sooner or later Romano Prodi’s government, with a majority of one in the Senate, would stumble and fall. And it isn’t surprising that two of the people responsible for yesterday’s defeat should represent fringe elements of … Continue reading →

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Fasten your seatbelts…

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Well, it’s better than nothing. The proposed new bill to regulate civil unions isn’t perfect, but compromise isn’t intended to produce perfection – what compromise is intended to produce is the illusion of perfectibility. The only people whose noses are … Continue reading →

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God’s ferret strikes again

Posted on February 8, 2007 by Charles Lambert

Cardinal Ruini appears to have made use of L’Avvenire, the Vatican newspaper, in his latest offensive against civil unions. An unsigned editorial (but undoubtedly the ferret’s work) threatens that the kind of legal recognition of unmarried couples likely to be … Continue reading →

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