An LGBT group in northern Italy has announced that, during the celebration of the Brianza Pride —a gay pride march that will take place this Saturday in the Lombard town of Arcore, near Milan— a parody of the Via Crucis will be performed with the provocative title “Via Frocis”.
According to Monza Today, the organizers intend to walk through the city’s streets with ten stations that, instead of recalling the moments of Christ’s Passion, will spread political messages and ideological claims.
The itinerary will end in Pertini Square after passing in front of the villa of the late Silvio Berlusconi, and among the planned stations are: the “genocide in Gaza”, “rainbow families and the DDL Varchi” (a law that punishes surrogacy), “Hungary and the fall of LGBT rights”, the non-binary community, transgender women, the student world, and, at the final stop, the “Pride as the resurrection of everyone’s rights”. Particular indignation has been caused by the eighth station, which presents “Italy nailed to the cross of Vatican interference”.
Denunciations of blasphemy and demands to withdraw support
That same day, Monza Today reported the response from the pro-life and pro-family party Popolo della Famiglia (PdF), which described the initiative as “blasphemy”. Andrea Cavenaghi, the representative in Monza and Brianza, along with national spokesperson Mirko De Carli and national secretary Nicola Di Matteo, asked the mayors who had granted sponsorship to the march to withdraw it immediately.
“The LGBTQ+ world, not content with having profaned the Jubilee and St. Peter’s Basilica, now offends one of the most solemn moments of the faith with a direct attack on Our Lord’s Via Crucis”, stated the PdF representatives.
They also warned politicians who call themselves Catholic that, if they do not revoke the support granted, they should refrain from “showing up at church to pretend closeness to Catholic values”.
Context: the response to Cardinal Müller
The organizers, as also explained by Monza Today, justified the “Via Frocis” as a response to the statements by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, emeritus prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Müller reiterated days earlier that “homosexual acts are a mortal sin” and that the Holy Door cannot be used for propaganda instead of conversion.
The cardinal also reaffirmed his rejection of the blessings of homosexual unions approved in Pope Francis’s declaration Fiducia supplicans. In response to these words, Oscar Innaurato, president of Brianza oltre l’arcobaleno and organizer of the Pride, stated that the “Via Frocis” is a way to “give voice” to their community in the face of what they perceive as attacks from the Church.
A frontal attack against the faith
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana published an analysis denouncing that the event constitutes a direct attack against the cross and against Christ himself, as it turns the path to Calvary into an ideological spectacle. The Italian media outlet denounces that the “Via Frocis” reveals the true face of the Pride: an anti-Catholic hatred that takes advantage of the lack of firmness in part of the Church to publicly display contempt for the sacred.
The newspaper also recalled Cardinal Müller’s words on the so-called “rainbow jubilee”, in which he accused certain groups of “profaning the temple of God” and going against the will of the Creator, who instituted marriage as a sacrament.
Possible crime against religion
Italian jurists consulted by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana pointed out that the act could fit under Article 404 of the Penal Code, which punishes the public vilification of religious practices. Ridiculing the Via Crucis, they warned, is equivalent to offending the cross itself and its meaning.
If confirmed, the “Via Frocis” would not be just an ideological provocation, but an act with legal consequences.
A mockery that evokes Calvary
The episode recalls the insults Christ suffered at Calvary: “The chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him in the same way… Even the robbers who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way” (Mt 27, 41-44).
What happened then in Jerusalem is repeated now in the streets of Italy: hatred toward the cross is expressed with insolence, while “freedom of expression” is invoked as a pretext to insult the most sacred things.