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Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Report on Mission to Italy:
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ITALY - OUTRAGE OVER PRIEST BLAME OF
WOMEN FOR GENDER VIOLENCE
Italian media reported that parish
priest Piero Corsi fixed a text to the bulletin board of his church in the
northern village of San Terenzo di Lerici, which said women should engage in
"healthy self criticism" over the issue of femicide, or men murdering
women.
Domestic violence against women is a serious
problem in Italy
although a report by a United Nations mission in June
said it was "largely invisible and underreported".
The text, posted on a website by a
conservative Catholic named Bruno Volpe, attacked pornography and erotic
television advertising but said women
shared the blame for "provoking the worst instincts, which then turn into
violence and sexual abuse".
"Let's ask ourselves. Is it possible
that men have all gone mad at one stroke? We don't think so," said the
text, which was reproduced in several newspapers.
"The core of the problem is in the fact
that women are more and more provocative, they yield to arrogance, they believe
they can do everything themselves and they end up exacerbating tensions,"
it said.
"How often do we see girls and even
mature women walking on the streets in provocative and tight clothing?"
"Babies left to themselves, dirty
houses, cold meals and fast food at home, soiled clothes. So if a family ends
up in a mess and turns into crime (a form of violence which should be condemned
and punished firmly) often the responsibility is shared," it said.
The mayor of Lerici, Marco Caluri, said on
Thursday the article was "astonishing and deeply offensive" and the
bishop of La Spezia ordered it to be taken down, saying it contained
"unacceptable opinions which are against the common position of the
church".
A third of women in Italy had reported being victim of serious
domestic violence, a UN report citing data from Italian statistics agency ISTAT
said.
It said that as many as 127 women had been
murdered by men in 2010, often as a result of "honor, men's unemployment
and jealousy by the perpetrator".
Maria Gabriella Carnieri Moscatelli, the head
of Telefono Rosa, an association that helps the victims of violence, said an
apology subsequently offered by Corsi was not sufficient.
"I thank the bishop who had the paper
taken down but I'm still not satisfied because I think someone needs to talk to
this person and understand why he has these attitudes," she told SkyTG24
television.
"I think he needs to make a deeper
examination of his conscience that goes beyond apologies," she said.
Corsi denied reports that he intended to
resign as priest and in an interview published on the web site of the weekly
Oggi, he said he would be carrying on with his work.
"After everything that's happened, which
has certainly been well beyond what I intended or expected, I think there's
need for calm, rest and silence to respond with the serenity and harmony
required to carry on," he said.
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