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 César Bedón Rivera / Facebook

LIMA, Peru, December 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A human wall rose up to defend a Catholic church in Peru, offering only prayers and hymns to resist radical feminists who were protesting against violence against women and in favor of abortion.

On Saturday, which Catholics recognized as the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, approximately 150 faithful prayed the rosary for several hours outside the Virgen Milagrosa parish church in the Miraflores suburb of the Peruvian capital. There they faced off some 300 radical feminists who assembled at Kennedy Park in front of the church, denouncing what the feminists call the “patriarchal violence to which we women and diverse people have been historically exposed.”

The feminists shouted their slogans and epithets from mid-afternoon until just after darkness fell. Circling the park and making several stops, the protesters headed toward the church in the company of police. In front of the church, the feminist protesters began chanting and dancing in unison. Some shouted, “I will abort my Lord!” Police stood in a line between the feminists and Catholics.

At the church, faithful Catholics waited for the demonstrators. Praying the rosary, the Catholics, men and women, sang hymns and also shouted, “I’m not a rapist,” “Long live men!,” and “Long live Christ the King!” The third was the rallying cry of Mexican Catholics of nearly one hundred years ago who fought against an anti-Catholic government, as well as Cubans of the 1960s who resisted the Marxist regime of Fidel Castro.

The hundreds of feminists, mostly young women, chanted in unison. “A rapist in your way,” is a chant and street performance that has become a worldwide leftist feminist hallmark, which includes the phrase, “You are the rapist” and repudiations of “patriarchy,” the state, and police. Some of the women at the front of the group were topless and wore masks, much like similar feminists in Russia, Europe, and North America.

Some wore green kerchiefs around their necks, the symbol used by abortion proponents throughout Latin America. The Peruvian feminists were protesting, ostensibly, against femicide — murder and violence committed by men against women — but also for abortion rights.

The feminists shouted at the Catholics defending the place of worship, “Christ doesn’t love you!” For their part, Catholics responded, “This is Peru, not Chile or Argentina!”

Protesters claim that police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, and media outlet La República claims that police lobbed tear gas. The protesters eventually left the area without further incident.

The performance protest in Lima has echoed in cities in Latin America, the U.S., France, India, Spain, and Turkey. “A rapist in your way” has been translated into English, French, and Hindi and was originated by a group of young female radicals in Chile on the basis of the writings of feminist anthropologist Rita Segato, an Argentine who has made the study of violence against women her life’s work. The performance involves chanting, gesturing, and dancing in unison by the participants. It first appeared in Santiago, the capital of Chile, on November 25, the International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women. A similar protest was held in Miami on Sunday.

In nearby Chile, the Catholic Church has lost much of its prestige in the wake of resignations of bishops accused of countenancing child rapists. In recent weeks, anarchists and leftists have unleashed arson and vandalism against a church in Chile during anti-government protests. There, looters took pews, a crucifix, and statues of saints while setting fire to a historic church in Santiago, the capital.

In September, leftist pro-abortion protesters set fires in front of a cathedral in Mexico City, having also destroyed bus stops and sprayed graffitti on the building that houses Mexico’s Chamber of Commerce.