Italian homophobia bill will ‘be used to persecute the Church’: HLI Rome head
ROME , January 16, 2014 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – The Italian Senate is again considering the “Mancino law,” a bill that proposes to criminalize “homophobia,” but this time the bill is gaining increasing opposition – both from Christians, who are concerned about civil liberties , and from homosexual activists, who consider that amendments have rendered it “toothless.” On Saturday, a large rally was held in Rome against the bill organized by the recently formed Manif Pour Tous Italia, a civil liberties association that is concerned that such laws curtail human rights, rather than defending them. Opponents have been vocal in their concerns that the bill will threaten Article 21 in the Italian constitution that guarantees freedom of thought and opinion and the safeguards of the natural family in Articles 29, 30 and 32 that specify that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro, a secular as well as canon lawyer and the head of the Rome office of ...