Priest hurt in mock gay marriage
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1274&storyid=3241659From correspondents in Paris
June 6, 2005
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A PRIEST was slightly hurt at Paris's famed Notre-Dame Cathedral when clashes broke out between church security personnel and gay rights activists who performed a mock marriage of two lesbians.
About 20 members of the group Act Up entered the cathedral and proceeded to perform the mock marriage in front of baffled tourists and worshippers, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
One activist - dressed as a priest - pronounded the two women married, while other Act Up members chanted: "Pope Benedict XVI, homophobe, AIDS accomplice."
With security officials in pursit, they then fled the cathedral, but clashes broke out outside the Paris landmark, during which Monsignor Patrick Jacquin suffered a minor neck injury. He was treated at the scene.
The demonstration marked the first anniversary of France's first gay wedding, performed last year in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles.
The union of two men has since been declared null and void by the French courts.
Monsignor Jacquin said: "They are savages. I was pushed to the ground and trampled, kicked in the neck.
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----Lord have mercy! I couldn’t imagine something like this happening in an Orthodox Church. These activist are going way to far with these stunts. If I ever saw something like this unfolding before my own eyes at Liturgy I would guarantee you there would be fisticuffs. I thought all gay marriages were "mock marriages" anyway. So here we have a mock "mock marriage"?