Posted on 06/05/2005 5:59:36 PM PDT by murphE
A PRIEST was slightly hurt at Paris's famed Notre-Dame Cathedral when clashes broke out between church security personnel and gay rights activists who performed a mock marriage of two lesbians.
About 20 members of the group Act Up entered the cathedral and proceeded to perform the mock marriage in front of baffled tourists and worshippers, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene. One activist - dressed as a priest - pronounded the two women married, while other Act Up members chanted: "Pope Benedict XVI, homophobe, AIDS accomplice."
With security officials in pursit, they then fled the cathedral, but clashes broke out outside the Paris landmark, during which Monsignor Patrick Jacquin suffered a minor neck injury. He was treated at the scene.
The demonstration marked the first anniversary of France's first gay wedding, performed last year in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles.
The union of two men has since been declared null and void by the French courts.
Monsignor Jacquin said: "They are savages. I was pushed to the ground and trampled, kicked in the neck.
"It's a scandal for these people to lash out at me and the Pope."
He said he was considering filing charges against what he called "barbaric, odious and scandalous acts".
The president of Act Up Paris, Jerome Martin - who participated in today's demonstration - said he had also been hit in the melee, but claimed the priest had exaggerated the actual events.
"We did not want to be aggressive with respect to the worshippers... the aggressive security detail wanted to rip up our banner," he said.
Earlier, the Act Up activists demonstrated outside Paris city hall, denouncing homophobia and calling for equal rights for gays and lesbians.
They were French.
Once again, gay activists demonstrate that they do not respect religious freedom or tolerate others who don't agree with them.
Physically assaulting a priest used to be grounds for formal excommunication. (Yeah, I know, they have already excommunicated themselves, etc... but if they were formally excommunicated, then they couldn't pretend to still be Catholic.)
And so I pray:
Father God, I pray that you save and change every last 'homosexual' alive today. Deliver them from this plague they are involved in. Father, I pray that if they refuse to be changed that you kill them before they can drag anyone else into hell with them
The "onlookers" were unlikely to have been fervent Catholics who were in the building for purposes of worship.
Anyone who has been to Paris will be aware that the many magnificent churches and cathedrals in that city are now little more than tourist attractions. Hence, those present in Notre Dame when this occured would likely have been the usual group of camera-totin', money belt-wearin, sneaker-clad tourists, amongst whom the defense of sacred Catholic sites and teaching would be seen as a relatively trivial issue compared to where lunch was going to be eaten or if the Louvre was going to be open that day.
Yes, let's put the militant back in Church Militant!
While it's certainly possible that the Pope is a "homophobe" (whatever that means), it is difficult to see how he could possibly be called an "AIDS accomplice." After all, I am unaware that Pope Benedict XVI has ever been a promoter of anal sex.
I think that wasn't them, but instead angry feminists.
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