"World Gay Pride 2000" (Vatican).

Rome--The international "gay" forum taking place during the first week of July drew international media attention.

The Vatican, from its inception, regarded this event as a provocation, particularly because of its timing during the Jubilee Year. Various polls impressed on both national and civic politicians that many ordinary voters did not support the welcome mat they had spread out for the homosexual activists (See C.I. June, p.26, and July, p.25, News in Brief).

On July 1, over a thousand Catholics took part in a torchlight procession from St. John Lateran Square to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love, ten miles outside Rome. The procession was organized by the Lepanto Cultural Centre, whose president, Prof. Roberto de Mattel, said, "This homosexual rally aims at exercising a propagandistic pressure on... laws, in order to introduce a new crime...homophobia--the crime supposedly committed by those who believe in a natural and Christian order. Tonight... we are defending Christian civilization... and the Church, whose honour has been gravely insulted."

French Bishop Jacques Gaillot had planned to address a July 4 "gay forum" on religion at a Rome hotel, but was ordered to drop his plans by Pope John Paul II. Bishop Gaillot was removed from his see of Evreux in France in 1995 for creating continuous controversy with his belligerent antiCatholic views. While bowing to the Pope's order, he said in a statement that the Church "should repent as far as homosexuality is concerned."

Fr. Georges Cottier, theologian to the Pontifical Household, addressed the issue of the Church's attitude to homosexuality in an interview with the Italian daily Avvenire. He restated the position, as found in the Catechism (#2357), that the Church differentiates between homosexual tendencies and homosexual acts. Fr. Cottier further said that "this manifestation (the World Pride 2000 rally) does not help us to understand the problem, nor existing human tragedies." The present difficulty he attributed to a 'gay' ideology. He also declared that homosexual unions could not be considered as in any way equivalent to legal marriage.

Canada's National Post reported that the only impediment to the march on Saturday, July 8, was a burning Roman sun which melted the asphalt. It also took seriously the organisers' claim crediting the Vatican for the large numbers in attendance, "ten to twenty times" as many as past gay events. "The Pope made enormous advertising for gay pride," claimed one spokesman, "especially preventing Bishop Gaillot from speaking."

Speaking from his balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square the following day, the Holy Father denounced the gay parade as offensive to Christians, saying that "homosexual acts are contrary to natural law". He felt bitter, he said, about the insult of having a homosexual festival "during the grand Jubilee of the year 2000 and for the offence to Christian values in a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics all over the world."