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Article: The crossroads of Catholicism.(Rome Tourbook)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- July 15, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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My wife and I moved to Rome almost exactly five years ago, arriving on July 2, 2000, which happened to be the first day of an international Gay Pride festival in Rome. It was unfolding smack in the middle of the Great Jubilee called by Pope John Paul II to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, and the coincidence of a Gay Pride march taking place during the Holy Year, which struck many observers as a deliberate provocation, was generating no small amount of controversy.
The next day I attended the first session of the weeklong series of events leading up to the march, held at the Cicerone Hotel near the Vatican. During that morning's opening ...