On the 2nd of April a very public message was delivered to the new President of the Italian Bishops Conference, Archbishop Bagnasco. Daubed on the doors of Genoa’s San Lorenzo cathedral were the words ‘Shame on you Bagnasco’¹

The message was, presumably, a reaction to the controversy generated by the newly appointed succesor to Cardinal Ruini, and his clarification as to why the Italian Bishops Conference has publicly opposed upcoming legislation which would grant legal rights to de facto couples (including homosexuals)[legislation referred to popularly as DICO, from it’s acronym in Italian].

Bagnasco, in a meeting with Diocesan communication co-ordinators, is reported to have said, in relation to the DICO legislation: “Why say no, today, to a form of alternative cohabitation to the family, but tomorrow to the legalisation of incest or to paedophilia amongstconsenting persons?”²

We won’t waste any time blowing a fuse about the Archbishop’s actual comments – suffice to say what would one expect from one of Benny’s front-line stormtroopers.We’ll also nimbly sidestep the debate on the right of the Catholic hierarchy to involve itself in the political sphere, leaving it for another post – as the DICO debate will run on for some time. Instead, this monkey wants to focus on the message delivered to Bagnasco, and the reaction caused by the slogan.

One day after the message was left, the local police, in discussion with the local authorities, decided to give Bagnasco a police escort.

Signs and signifiers run riot! Messages affixed to cathedral doors have more than a passing reference to Luther’s accusatory 95 theses at Wittenberg**. There was no threat in the message left on the doors of San Lorenzo for Bagnasco – rather a moral accusation.

By giving Bagnasco a police escort, the context changes – or rather is changed – dramatically. During the ’70s and early ’80s the infamous Red Brigades were wont to paint their logo, a five pointed star, in strategic places to demonstrate their reach and to menace opponents. In recent months a new alleged BR cell was arrested, and the five pointed star has been painted outside, for example, the home of television news director Carlo Rossella.

Our anonymous messenger(s) thus go from moral protesters to revolutionary assasins with a simple bureaucratic decision. Then again, for the Church, no doubt, Luther and the Red Brigades fall under the convenient catch-all category of heretics.

The president of Italy’s ArciGay movement, Sergio Lo Giudice, meanwhile questioned the political rush to stand by Bagnasco in the face of the dimly perceived threat (politicians across the spectrum expressed solidarity with the Archbishop), in contrast to the general lack of outrage at his initial comments equating homosexuality with paedophilia.

*no doubt those leaving comments on this ‘holy’ blog will be dissapointed by this backdown
**Catholic research has suggested that Luther never actually nailed his theses to the door of Wittenburg cathedral – instead sending a letter to his superiors

¹ ‘Bagnasco Vergogna’
² “Perché dire no, oggi, a forme di convivenza stabile alternative alla famiglia, ma domani alla legalizzazione dell’incesto o della pedofilia tra persone consenzienti?” – Bagnasco: “No ai Dico come alla pedofilia”
Poi la precisazione: “E’ stato frainteso – La Repubblica