politica
La vita nell’ombra -È possibile essere gay e cattolico in Italia?
After Pope Francis was appointed in 2015, things seemed to be looking up for Italy’s LGBTQ+ community, and in fact for LGBTQ+ people involved in the Catholic church worldwide.
For the first time, it seemed as though the leader of the Church was in support of granting more concrete rights to Italy’s LGBTQ+ population. This was a vitally important step in the right direction, given that 83% of the country’s population identifies as Catholic and around half of that number again identifies as Observant.
Pope Francis spoke openly about his acceptance of the community at the beginning of his papacy. In Italy, where the Catholic Church obviously still holds so much power and influence culturally, there was hope among LGBTQ+ Italians that they would finally be able to enjoy the same rights as people in other Western European countries without persecution.
However, an article published by The Washington Post in 2014 underlines how “Francis’s shift so far has been one of style over substance; nothing in the church’s teachings on homosexuality has changed.”
Image source: Canva