ROME, Italy (LifeSiteNews) – The Italian senate shot down an attempt by LGBT activists to codify opposition to the LGBT agenda as a criminal act.
The senators decided against the “Zan bill” on October 27 by 154 votes to 131, thus prompting rapturous applause among conservative members in the chamber.
The Zan bill is named after openly homosexual politician Alessandro Zan, who first introduced the proposal to the Italian parliament. Zan also acts as a leading member of the Italian LGBT activist organization Arcigay, which has railed against the Catholic Church for its traditional teachings regarding sexuality.
Zan’s bill proposed to amend Italy’s penal code to criminalize “discrimination or violence based on sex, gender, or disability,” and to institute a national day against “homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.”
Acts deemed to violate the discrimination law would have been punished with an up to €6,000 ($6950 U.S.) fine and 18 months’ imprisonment.
Concerns about the imprecision of the bill’s definition of terms like “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” raised concerns among conservative and pro-family groups regarding the scope of the proposed law, with worries that freedom of thought and expression could be stifled.
An official campus group of Loyola Marymount University (LMU), the Women in Politics group, is scheduled to host a fundraising event on behalf of Planned Parenthood THIS COMING FRIDAY, November 5th, 2021.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition which calls on LMU's president, Dr. Timothy Snyder, to cancel the event.
This decision should not be too hard to make.
As most people know, Planned Parenthood kills more unborn babies by abortion than any other organization in the United States - more than 330,000 per year (latest stats, 2017).
So, by giving Planned Parenthood space on the university's campus for a fundraiser, Loyola Marymount University would be tacitly endorsing the abortion behemoth, to students, alumni, staff, and the general public.
But, Planned Parenthood must be opposed, not endorsed!
And, it's not only we who are saying this, but the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Indeed, the USCCB has produced an excellent, updated (2019) fact-sheet on Planned Parenthood.
The headings of the bishops' fact-sheet, which are reproduced below, explain exactly why Planned Parenthood must be opposed by all Catholics and people of good will:
- 1. PPFA is the largest abortion provider in the U.S.
- 2. Every Planned Parenthood affiliate must perform abortions.
- 3. Planned Parenthood provides 28 times more abortions than birth-oriented services.
- 4. Planned Parenthood promotes risky RU-486 abortions that have killed young women.
- 5. Planned Parenthood fights even modest laws to reduce or regulate abortions.
- 6. Planned Parenthood doesn't believe in a “right to choose” against abortion.
- 7. Planned Parenthood is not “pro-choice” for women.
- 8. Planned Parenthood’s role in serving women’s health is compromised at best, and is better taken over by others.
- 9. “Nonprofit” Planned Parenthood reaps enormous revenues, including tax revenues.
- 10. Even as Planned Parenthood’s government funding has increased, the number of medical services it provides has decreased—but not abortions.
- 11. Planned Parenthood promotes risky “emergency contraception” to minors.
- 12. Planned Parenthood has promoted abortions worldwide, even where it is illegal.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition!
In the context of a "fundraiser," number 9 on the bishops' list must be given special attention. To reiterate: “Nonprofit” Planned Parenthood reaps enormous revenues, including tax revenues (i.e., taxpayer dollars).
LMU proclaims itself to be "institutionally committed to Roman Catholicism," which is totally opposed to abortion and the promotion of abortion. And, LMU also claims that one pillar of its mission is to be at "the service of faith and the promotion of justice," which, again, is diametrically opposed to abortion and the promotion of abortion. [See the university's website below to read more.]
Therefore, LMU President, Timothy Snyder, should be encouraged to do the right thing and cancel this event which is an affront to the Church and to genuine justice.
It is clear that by allowing a fundraiser for the United States' largest abortion franchise to take place on campus, LMU would not only be causing grave scandal to its students, alumni, staff and the general public, but the university would also be going against its own principles.
Finally, it must be noted, here, that about two years ago, the president of another Jesuit-run university (Seattle University), Fr. Stephen Sundborg, SJ, had references to Planned Parenthood removed from his school's health website.
We now call on President Snyder to emulate Fr. Sundborg by canceling the scheduled Planned Parenthood fundraiser.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING today!
After signing, please take a few minutes to call Loyola Marymount to politely, but firmly, voice your opposition to the university hosting a Planned Parenthood fundraiser on campus. Thank you!
The best number for President Snyder's office is: (310) 338-2775
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Catholic university under fire for plans to host Planned Parenthood fundraiser' - https://www.liveaction.org/news/catholic-university-planned-parenthood-fundraiser/
LMU's Mission webpage: https://www.lmu.edu/about/mission/
**Photo Credit: Daniel J. Macy / Shutterstock.com
Catholic schools in Italy, of which around 8,000 must follow the Italian state curriculum, were at risk of being forced to celebrate the new “national day against homophobia, lesbophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.”
Antonio Brandi, president of the Italian Catholic Pro Vita e Famiglia (PVF, For Life and Family) organization, said that the senate’s decision to throw out the Zan bill is “a victory for democracy, freedom of opinion and conscience, and of the educative freedom of Italian families.”
PVF had been outspoken against the bill from its inception in the lower house of the Italian parliament in 2018, organizing conferences and demonstrations in protest of the radical bill over the three years that it progressed through Italian parliament.
“Today we all won because all Italians have the right to express their fundamental freedoms and to think differently from the usual mainstream pro-LGBT [narrative],” Brandi said.
He added that “common sense prevailed among the senators” and celebrated the bill’s defeat as having “foiled the brainwashing of millions of children in Italian schools by LBGT activists.”
The senate was originally set to decide on the bill in July, but deliberations were pushed back for months due to the influx of 1,000 amendment proposals.
Owing to the broad nature of the bill, the Vatican Secretary of State wrote a letter to the Italian Ambassador to the Vatican, Pietro Sebastiani, on June 17.
The letter highlighted the possibility that the amendments within the Zan bill would violate the principles of the Lateran Pacts, by which the two sovereign states guaranteed “the full freedom of the Catholic Church to carry out its pastoral, educational and charitable mission, of evangelization and sanctification.”
The Pacts ensure “Catholics and their associations and organizations are guaranteed full freedom of assembly and expression of thought by word, writing and any other means of dissemination.”