News
Featured Image
Pro-abortion protestors light flares outside Pro Vita e Famiglia's office.Pro Vita/X post

ROME (LifeSiteNews) –– Italy’s president Giorgia Meloni has condemned violence by members of a march supposedly protesting violence against women, which saw the Rome headquarters of a pro-life group heavily damaged and an explosive device left inside the building.

“I don’t know how anyone thinks of fighting violence against women by making themselves the protagonists of intolerable acts of violence and intimidation such as those that occurred on Saturday against the Pro Life and Family Association,” Meloni wrote.

On Saturday, November 25, the Rome headquarters of the pro-life and pro-family group Pro Vita e Famiglia was attacked by protestors.

Numerous photos and videos have been posted online, showing the extent of the damage caused by protestors who thronged outside the offices of the pro-life group. The protestors sprayed graffiti, smashed windows, lit fires, and even planted a home-made bomb inside the building, although it did not explode. 

Jacopo Coghe, spokesman for Pro Vita e Famiglia, described the attackers as “feminist activists.”

The protestors were part of a march taking place in Rome earlier in the day, which saw thousands of people take to the streets in cities across Italy, to protest violence against women. Following this protest, Coghe noted that the marchers turned their attention to Pro Vita’s offices

Issuing a statement in the hours following the attack, Coghe wrote:

We are deeply shocked and disturbed by the unprecedented violence of those who surrounded and then stormed our headquarters today during the demonstration against all violence in Rome.

He stated that protestors “in full war gear…threw bottles, stones and smoke bombs, smashed shutters, smashed glass with rods, knocked down cameras and made several attempts to set fire to the headquarters, despite the presence of law enforcement.”

Pro Vita describes itself as a group which “defends the right to life from conception to natural death, promotes the family founded on the marriage between a man and a woman, and supports parents’ freedom and educational priority.”

Coghe argued that the attack against the group showed “the true face of transfeminism: an aggressive, violent, dangerous and ideological movement that does not tolerate those who think differently from them and who care nothing about the poor women victims of feminicide.”

The destructive attack on the pro-life group’s offices represented “an attack on the freedom of all women who do not recognize themselves in the rantings and violence of these movements, the same ones who would claim to enter inside schools to promote respect education courses against violence, bullying, affectivity and sexual education,” Coghe added. 

Assessing the damage in the early hours of Sunday morning, a home-made unexploded incendiary device was found inside Pro Vita’s office. 

Responding to critics who, according to Pro Vita, downplayed the seriousness of finding the bomb, the group wrote: “Evidently, for these super-democrats there is a need to exceed a certain threshold of damage to property and people in order to express solidarity.”

It was in light of this that Meloni – Prime Minister of Italy since October 2022 – wrote online in support of Pro Vita. “I want to question everyone on a trivial question: should violence always be condemned or only when it is directed at someone whose ideas we share?,” she asked. 

She was supported in her stance by her deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who condemned the attack as it happened. 

Welcoming Meloni’s message, Pro Vita stated that the weekend’s attacks would not forestall their pro-life work: 

We will continue our mission to protect Life, Family and Educational Freedom fearlessly and with our heads held high, knowing that we interpret the values of the overwhelming majority of Italian citizens, who are disgusted by the ideological and violent eagerness of the usual, hypocritical and dangerous radical Left.

Indeed, this is by no means the first time that Pro Vita has suffered opposition to their pro-life activity. Their Rome offices have been repeatedly vandalized with graffiti in recent months, as anti-life activists have directed their anger toward the pro-life group. 

In an article published by Pro Vita on November 27, the uptick of anti-life violence was highlighted as being part of an “escalation of violence, the dress rehearsal of a neo-feminism more aggressive than ever.”

Giuliano Guzzo, editor of Pro Vita’s magazine Notizie, accused society of having “very serious double standards” with regards violence.

Double standards that unfortunately make it clear that there is a deep part of Italian society that regards violence – when acted against those who defend life from conception and the natural family – begins to get used to it. To the point of not grasping the incredible and shameful paradox that sees certain violence carried out precisely during a demonstration against violence. In words, that is.

14 Comments

    Loading...