8,000 signatures in support of the Italian Family Minister
On the 20th of September, 2018, the Italian Family Minister, Lorenzo Fontana, received representatives from SOS Ragazzi and Generazione Voglio Vivere (Italian TFP) - who had collected more than 8,000 signatures in his support -- in his office in Rome. This took place after two campaigns that were launched in order to express solidarity with the minister.
Recently, Fontana has come under fire for his statements in defense of the traditional family structure and the promotion of increased birthrates.
Fontana expressed his appreciation for the campaigns and thanked SOS Ragazzi and Generazione Voglio Vivere for their continued work in defense of the family throughout the years. Their petition was launched in June, when he was appointed as Family Minister, in response to the barrage of criticisms and insults.
Much of this criticism began after his statement to Corriere della Sera -- Italy's leading newspaper -- that so-called "Rainbow families" (IE homosexual families) do not exist.
Within a few weeks and without much publicity, over 8,000 Italians rushed to the minister's side, and subsequently to the side of reason and common sense.
The 38 year old married father and native of Verona, has stated previously that he is a proud Catholic.
Throughout his career as deputy mayor of Verona, MEP and deputy secretary of the League, he has consistently worked with energy and conviction for values held dear by faithful Catholics. His statements over the past few years paint a clear picture of this:
- "A family is only a man, a woman and children."
- "On the one hand, [you have] the weakening of the family, the fight for gay marriage and gender theory in the schools, on the other, mass immigration that we simultaneously suffer with the emigration of our youth abroad, these are factors that aim to bury our community and our traditions."
- "[policies] must care for the [institution of the] family, we cannot waste time. Children are the investment of the future. Every year, it is as if we have lost a city the size of Padua; the demographic decline is comparable to the loss suffered between 1918 and 1920 as a result of the Spanish Flu."
On the subject of demographic winter, one of Europe's most pressing issues, Fontana recently wrote the book The Empty Cradle of Civilisation (Faith and Culture), along with former IOR president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.
He also attended the annual March for Life in Rome and made his position against abortion clear.