A nativity scene featuring two mothers has caused controversy (Reuters via YouTube)
A nativity scene at a church in Italy has been heavily criticised for displaying Jesus as having two mothers, opposed to the traditional Mary and Joseph set up.
Father Vitaliano Della Sala – of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Capocastello di Mercogliano – defended the depiction, saying the church wishes to showcase and welcome different kinds of families.
“I wanted to show with this scene that families are no longer just the traditional ones,” he told Reuters.
“In our parishes we see more and more children from the new types of families that exist and are part of our society, children of separated and divorced people, gay couples, single people, young mothers.”
Della Sala is well-known as being supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and says he backs Pope Francis’s recent decision to allow the Catholic Church to bless same-sex couples.
In a video interview with the news agency, Della Sala added that as priests, they must look at how they “treat these children, the children of these people, the children of these families, and above all, how we treat these families”.
“I say we must welcome in the best possible way. We must make them feel at home,” he continued.
The display has been blasted by Conservative religious figures in the country, with the Pro-Vita & Famiglia (Pro-Life and Family) group calling it “dangerous, as well as shameful and blasphemous”.
Senator Maurizio Gasparri said it “offends all those who always had respect and devotion for the Holy Family”.
The backlash over the two-mother display comes amid a crackdown on lesbian mothers in Italy.
Far-right and anti-LGBTQ+ prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has sought to crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ+ families since she took office.
In July, a list of 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples since 2017 was provided to judges in northern Italy, asking them to strip the names of mothers who did not give birth to the child from the records.