International Women’s Day event banned by Vatican over gay speaker

An International Women’s Day event was banned by the Vatican over a speaker being a lesbian.

The event was forced to move after clerics saw Ugandan lesbian Catholic Ssenfuka Joanita Warry and pro-LGBTI advocate Tina Beattie.

The Pope rejected an invitation to attend the annual Voices of Faith conference.

Senior Vatican official Kevin Farrell said it was ‘not appropriate’ to include the women.

The Voices of Faith refused to comply and moved across the seat to the Jesuit headquarters.

International Women’s Day event forcibly moved by the Vatican

Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese said, according to the BBC: ‘A Church that is homophobic and anti-abortion is not the church of the future.

‘The Catholic Church is one of the last great bastions of misogyny. It’s an empire of misogyny.

‘Our voices stir the winds of change, so we must speak out. We don’t want to be what the Pope describes as “the strawberry on the cake.”‘

A release from the event made the church aware of the dangers of leaving out minority opinions in religious discussion.

‘Warry understands the tragedy that can happen when the Church excludes persecuted groups rather than joining them in seeking protection, dignity and justice,’ the statement said.

‘As a lesbian Catholic woman, she leads the fight for LGBT rights in Uganda, a country where same-sex relations are punishable by life in prison.’

International Women’s Day organizers call on Vatican to move forward on equality

The statement also encouraged the Church to move forward on equality.

‘The crises we must confront in our world today demand leaders, women and men, who are prepared to think the unthinkable and who will risk upsetting powerful vested interests and take bold steps forward for the greater good.’

This comes as a gay escort has reportedly sent a 1,200 page dossier to the Vatican identifying 40 ‘actively gay’ priests.

Cardinal Cresenzio Sepe, the archdiocese of Naples, compiled the document based on findings by the rent boy.

The escort has allegedly had sex with many of the 40 priests working in the Catholic Church in Italy.

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