Homophobic nun blames ‘the devil’ for two female models kissing in the street

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Two female models have shared a kiss in Naples, Italy, as part of a photoshoot – and a homophobic nun was having none of it.

Models Serena de Ferrari and Kyshan Wilson posed during a photo shoot in the Quartieri Spagnoli neighbourhood for the upcoming third issue of Italy’s Not Yet Magazine, all about art and lifestyle.

But then an unidentified nun, dressed in an all-white habit, seemingly popped out of nowhere and sped towards the pair.

She dragged the women apart as she screamed: “What are you doing? This is the devil’s work.”

The confused actors, who star in the Italian soap Mare Fuori, exchanged glances as they giggled.

The nun then set her sights on the camera crew, saying their generation is to blame for COVID-19, before crossing herself and adding: “Jesus, Joseph and Mary.”

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The scene was recorded by makeup artist Roberta Mastalia who told Italian media the nun asked if the team had been to Mass that morning.

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“We were on location in the Spanish Quarter in Naples, in a little side street with the two models when all of a sudden the nun walked past,” she said.

“She asked us if we had been to Mass that day and when we said ‘no’ she started blaming young people for the coronavirus and then she saw the two models posing up ready to kiss and that’s when she ran forward to split them up.

“Our first reaction was we were all stunned… [we] took it as a bit of a joke and in fact, you can see from the video the two girls are laughing.”

When Mastalia stressed the team were doing a photoshoot, the nun got the hint and “slowly” walked away.

“When you go viral but not for something good…” Not Yet Magazine joked in an Instagram post of the video. While de Ferrari posted the video on her account and said: “God doesn’t love LGBT.”

According to the MailOnline, Italy’s top LGTBQ+ campaign group Arcigay, said the elderly nun’s views would have been “understandable” decades ago.

“It was homophobic behaviour from the nun but at least she wasn’t aggressive,” said Arcigay president Antonello Sannino. “It seems as if the nun was quite outraged by what she saw which would be understandable if it was another era.”

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Catholicism and LGBTQ+ rights have long clashed in Italy, where the church carries immense sway over national politics. It has, at times, intervened to stall or pressure to completely scrap bills that would advance LGBTQ+ rights.

In April 2021, the Vatican expressed deep reservations over proposals by the government to enshrine overdue protections for LGBTQ+ Italians, women and disabled people from discrimination and violence.

The Holy See’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, hand-delivered a letter to the Vatican’s Italian ambassador Francesco Di Nitto that outlined the Vatican’s opposition.

In the letter, the Vatican argued protecting LGBTQ+ people would infringe guaranteed religious freedoms and open the church up to criminal charges for its anti-LGBTQ+ stances, such as opposing marriage equality. It claimed the bill would breach a near century-old treaty between Italy and the Vatican.

The Senate went on to strike down the bill in October.