Celebrating Santa Rosalia and Human Rights

Preparations started well before I arrived in Palermo on the first of July - nightly fireworks, wiring her float for music, street cleaning. By the 13th of July, the city was hot with passion in preparation for the feast of Santa Rosalia... 

But, the celebration took a different turn this year. Projected onto the facade of the cathedral of Palermo were images of two men and two women symbolizing gay pride. 

I took a long stroll along via Victor Emanuelle toward the Cathedral of Palermo to take part in the festivities.  

Amy Boylan wrote to me from New Hampshire to ask about public reaction, but I missed the images in the midst of the dense crowds. The next morning, the papers registered a response from the Counselor for Culture, Francesco Giambrone to Don Fabrizio Moscato, secretary of Palermo Archbishop Paolo Romeo who wrote on a facebook page, "Shame! We are touching the bottom. The homosexual ideology projected on the noble southern portico of the Cathedral of Palermo for the Pastron Saint Rosalie! ... who can tell me this is not a dirty provocation?" 

"There was no provocation intended." wrote Giambrone. "The video was about love and human rights. The images were about love,not sex."     

   
Also registered in the papers were complaints that "Santuzza" a famous South Korean rap smash "Gangnam Style" and other American music was playing as 
Mayor Leoluca Orlando chanted "Viva Palermo and Santa Rosalia!"