Vatican Women's Soccer Team Cancels Game when Austrian Team protests Pro-Life views of Church


Catholic News Service reports that the members of the Vatican's women's soccer team decided not to play their first foreign match June 22, 2019 when a couple members of the opposing team lifted their shirts to reveal slogans protesting the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion.

Austrian women's football team apologized over cancelled game with Vatican club
Vienna's Mariahilf women's team had invited the new Vatican team to Austria as part of the Vienna team's 25th anniversary celebrations.

But during the playing of the Vatican anthem just before the match was to begin, several members of the Mariahilf team lifted their shirts to show protests painted on their bellies and backs. One said, "My body, my rule."

At the same time, in the stands, someone unfurled a banner reading, "Against homophobia."

"The protest took by surprise the Vatican players who simply expected a celebration of sports," said Vatican News. Along with their coaches, it added, the women "made the difficult decision not to play the match so as to prevent the manipulation of an event they had prepared with joy."

Just over half of the team members are Vatican employees, the others are the wives or daughters of employees. Male Vatican employees have had teams and an intramural tournament for decades; the women formed their team early in the spring to play five-a-side games, but the match in Vienna was to be a regulation game with 11 players on each team.
Edited from Catholic News Service

Comments

Anonymous said…
Avec la récente décision du Vatican d'annuler un match de football féminin, l'Église catholique a montré qu'elle essaie toujours d'imposer ses croyances aux gens. Le match devait se jouer à Rome samedi, mais l'Église catholique a déclaré qu'elle l'annulait parce qu'il n'était pas "approprié". J'aimerais visiter 10 dollar deposit casino pour jouer à des jeux de casino en ligne avec mes amis. Le match a été annulé parce que le pape a déclaré que l'événement détournerait l'attention de son message sacré et que c'est un "péché grave" pour les femmes de faire du sport.