Venice, sex workers occupy a church and priests get angry. Mock Mass.

San Nicola da Tolentino, in the historic center of Venice. A great coming and going of tourists, as expected. But then something unusual happens, in and around this splendid religious building that dates back to the 16th-17th century, in the Santa Croce district. A flash mob, as it is called, essentially a demonstration blitz coordinated by the Committee for the Civil Rights of Prostitutes in collaboration with the European sex worker’s rights alliance.

About fifty activists, singing irreverent lyrics and looking unsuitable for the place, read passages from the Gospel of Luke with references to the “forgiveness of sins to those who have loved so much” and a reference to the Eucharist in the churchyard, breaking a loaf of bread and reciting the traditional formula “this is my body”.

The anniversary

Tourists film and photograph, for them everything is always “very beautiful”, picturesque, but many of those present don’t think so at all. “They come here to bother us too... Almost no one goes to church anymore, except to be a nuisance”, says an elderly lady bluntly. “Why do they come to occupy a church? I say so because here no one reacts, in other places they would have been thrown out and in a bad way too, but in churches you can do whatever you want”, adds a middle-aged man bitterly, who walks away shaking his head. Other faithful remain there watching, unable to say anything.

The exploit was conceived to remember and celebrate June 2, 1975, when a hundred French “filles de joie” (“girls of joy”, as they were called in France) decided to occupy the church of Saint-Nizier in Lyon, to oppose the pressure of the police to which they believed they were subjected. Then as now they protested against the alleged “police repression”, and “for civil rights, health protection and against the social marginalization of people involved in prostitution”. The movement is led by Maria Pia Covre, historic founder of the Committee for the Civil Rights of Sex Workers (Cdcp), in collaboration, precisely, with the European movement.

Gospel turned back

Fifty years after that initiative, as reported by the newspaper Il Gazzettino, Venice has thus transformed itself into the stage for a national mobilization through the "movement of the magdalenes", which wanted to shine the spotlight on the rights and emergencies of the world of prostitutes. Aside from the gesture of "blessing" a loaf of bread, bordering on blasphemy - in this sense, some of the faithful present claim that "rights should be requested somewhere else, not in church" - it is also worth remembering, for the umpteenth time, that the reference to the Gospel waved on occasions like this is only half pertinent.

In fact, if Jesus certainly refused to judge the sinful woman, and pronounced the extraordinary words "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", then he told the woman "go and sin no more", not to continue doing as before. And as for Mary Magdalene, she too abandoned her previous profession to follow Jesus...

In any case, the reaction of the director of social communications of the Patriarchate, Don Marco Zane, was harsh. "With amazement and true displeasure, we witnessed inside and outside a sacred place scenes in which some passages of the Gospel were exploited. And the meaning of the sacrament of the Eucharist was distorted in an offensive and blasphemous way". The invitation, we read at the end of the note, is to "a prayer of reparation". Who knows. 

Source