If you’re sick and tired of the Christian Right and the Catholic Church forcing their idea of “family” — a unit made up of a man, a woman and some kids — on you, then you’d be better off not reading on. This week the infamous “Encuentro Mundial de las Familias” took place in Mexico City, and it was all traditional family model, all the time, with a whole lot of judgment and marginalization, as was to be expected. I mean, it is an event organized by the Vatican.

Here’s what church officials Ennio Antonelli and Marc Quellet had to say about gay families and those made up of unmarried couples:

The inaugural reception was over when, in the first talk given by the president of the Pope’s Family Council of the Vatican, Italian cardenal Ennio Antonelli said: “We think, and not only us, that the experience of living together between homosexuals should remain something private and within friendship relationships. Of course one can consider [these relationships] good or bad, that’s another story, but it should be considered a private relationship.”

In addition, for the Archbishop of Québec, Marc Quellet, the “free unions” among homosexuals, but also among heterosexuals, should combatted by the Church and society itself, because they constitute a threat to “human ecology.”

Mexico City’s La Jornada sums up the philosophy of the event quite well: “The event left out the debate about different family models.” They decided to not even include the topic in any of the workshops because non-traditional families clearly have no place in the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, Mexican President Felipe Calderón is under fire from attorneys and politicians for “violating the secularity of the State” by attending the event and making speeches there, along with his wife.

Calderón was well-received at the event, met with applause and shouts of “¡Viva nuestro Presidente católico!”
Lastly, like a scene from a sketch comedy show, event attendees were treated to mobile confession booths, just in case they got the urge to tell their sins to a priest in between lectures.

Via / La Jornada