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Catholic World News News Feature

Family Day rally in Rome dwarfs expectations May 14, 2007

Hundreds of thousands of Italians massed in Rome for a Family Day rally on May 12, demonstrating popular opposition to a government proposal that would offer legal recognition to same-sex civil unions.

Although organizers stressed that the day's rally was intended as an expression of support for the family, rather than a demonstration about any particular piece of legislation, the enormous crowd was seen-- by politicians, the media, and the participants themselves-- as a clear statement against the civil-union plan.

Estimates of the crowd's size varied radically, from 200,000 to 1.7 million. The huge discrepancy in estimates could be attributed in part to the biases of different reporters. But accurate calculations were impossible, since the crowd jammed the piazza in front of the basilica of St. John Lateran and spilled over onto the surrounding streets. There was no doubt, however, that the crowd size vastly exceeded the organizers' predictions that 100,000 people would attend.

Family Day was organized primarily by lay Catholic groups, although other religious leaders joined in endorsing the event. Several prominent politicians attended, led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who commented that "you cannot be Catholic and yet stand with those on the other side."

Prime Minister Romano Prodi, whose government has endorsed the civil-union proposal, was in Germany over the weekend. Prodi declined to comment directly on the implications of the Family Day rally, saying only that "the family is a matter of great importance."

A rival rally staged by homosexual activist groups and sponsored by the Radical and Socialist parties, drew a small but noisy crowd, estimated at about 1,000, to the Piazza Navona.

In other news, Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano sent a message to an annual gathering of the Italian homosexual activist group Arcigay in Milan, Italy. Napolitano is the first Italian head of state to greet the homosexual organization’s gathering.