OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
10:45 AM – Wednesday, December 27, 2023
An Italian church has received substantial backlash for portraying a “dangerous” and “blasphemous” nativity scene that displayed a figure of a second female in the place of Joseph.
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A church nativity scene in Italy, which features two mothers of the baby Jesus instead of Mary and Joseph characters, has been criticized by the public as being “dangerous” and “blasphemous.” Several people have requested for it to be removed.
The representation of Jesus’ birth that is on exhibit at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Capocastello di Mercogliano, outside of Naples, was defended by Father Vitaliano Della Sala.
“I wanted to show with this scene that families are no longer just the traditional ones,” Della Sala told the press. “In our parishes we see more and more children from the new types of families that exist and are part of our society, children of separated and divorced people, gay couples, single people, young mothers.”
Della Sala referred critics to Pope Francis’ recent decision which enabled priests to bless same-sex couples.
As a result of the same-sex nativity scene, with one of the Mary figurines dressed in rainbow colors, conservatives have launched an online petition for it to be taken down.
The petition was launched by Pro-Vita & Famiglia, which is a pro-life group. The organization asked for the bishop in the province to have the nativity scene be removed.
“An LGBT nativity scene with ‘two mothers’ was set up in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Capocastello di Mercogliano, in the province of Avellino,” the petition read. “A blasphemous and provocative representation that distorts the meaning of the Nativity scene itself and of the Holy Family: both with the removal of Saint Joseph, sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, and with the very serious message relating to the ‘two mothers’ which ‘sanctifies’ a practice as illegal as the buying and selling of gametes.”
With 24,610 signatures as of the time of publication, the Pro-Vita & Famiglia group has nearly obtained its target of 25,000.
According to Senator Maurizio Gasparri of the co-ruling Forza Italia party, the same-sex nativity scene “offends all those who always had respect and devotion for the Holy Family.”
Additionally, the organization named the scene “dangerous,” saying that it is extremely “shameful and blasphemous.”
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