Violent outbreaks and inflammatory statements marked this year’s Gathering of Women on November 24 in Argentina. According to InfoCatolica and LifeSiteNews.com, the conflict started earlier in the day, while the different workshops of the meeting were still in session. Eye-witness accounts report that in workshops related to the topic of abortion, several fundamentalist groups of pro-abortion feminists blocked access to anyone that did not espouse their views. There were several reports of physical violence reported by opponents of abortion who sought to engage in discussion regarding the topic.
A cell phone video shows a group of about fifty women dressed in symbols of the far left movement blocking the entrance to one of the workshops chanting, “Opus Dei, which is fascist, supports God. Christ the King, do not screw around anymore, go with your family, the Bible is waiting for you, leave us to screw in peace. Do not mess around with the abortionists, we have the right to say [whatever we want] and the Church has got to go.”
After the gathering proper was ended, many of the women at the gathering joined in on a march that was planned as part of the events of the day. At some point during the march, a small group of women, about eight, separated themselves from the route of the march and made for the cathedral, where they attacked a group of young men praying. Following this, it seems word got out on both sides; shortly after, there was a large group of young men who made a ring around the cathedral in order to protect it from acts of vandalism (there have been similar incidents before). In addition, there were about seven hundred believers gathered inside the church, including Most Rev. Alfonso Delgado, the Archbishop. On the protesters’ side, the police tried to prevent the march from going toward the cathedral, but since there were only a few hundred policemen trying to control a gathering of thousands, they were easily circumvented by going around a block.
Pandemonium ensued. Several amateur cellphone videos as well as eye-witness accounts reveal that a multitude of topless women attacked the young men defending the church, covering many of them in spray paint, including their faces, using markers to draw swastikas and inverted crosses on their foreheads and Hitler-style mustaches on their upper lips. Despite the fact that several men can be seen weeping in the videos, likely due to having been spray-painted in the eyes, having their shirts ripped off, and suffering insults form the crowd, there seems to have been no retaliation on the side of those being attacked. The protesters then continued to perform sexual acts in front of the men and, on several occasions, rubbed themselves against the men in explicit ways.
Some of the unifying slogans of the protesters were, “To the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, who wants to meddle itself in our bedrooms, we say that we want to be whores, transvestites, and lesbians. Legal abortion in every hospital,” and “Church, you piece of trash, you are the dictatorship,” as well as, “get the rosaries out of our ovaries.” The people protecting the cathedral, on the other hand, can be heard reciting the rosary.
After several attempts to break into the cathedral proved unsuccessful, the protestors backed off, ending their protest by burning an effigy of Pope Francis while chanting, “If the Pope were a woman, abortion would be legal.”
Gjergji Evangjeli served as the Editor-In-Chief of The Torch. He had previously served as the Executive Editor and the World News section editor. He is currently pursuing a ThM at the BC School of Theology and Ministry. Gjergji is interested in the patristic period, specifically in the apologists of the second century. He is an ardent defender of the Oxford comma.
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