The mother of a 17-year-old
girl who reported being raped by a North African in a rail
carriage after getting drunk said Friday she would meet a local
priest who was forced to apologise after saying she deserved it
for boozing and hanging around with immigrants.
"What hurt us the most is the comment of Father (Lorenzo)
Guidotti. I'll got to meet him and tell him what my idea of
Christian behaviour is, very different from his," the woman told
ANSA.
"My daughter was a victim and must be defended, not only by a
priest. The fault is of those who rape, not those who are
victims", she said.
"To the people, the press, we ask: stop. We have read so many
inaccuracies on our tragedy, and so many cutting judgments that
wound us, when no one, except us, knows what happened.
"We are a family of strong values," said the mother.
Father Guidotti was forced to apologise Thursday after
saying he didn't feel sorry for the girl.
"I'm sorry but if you swim in a piranha tank you can't
complain when you're missing a limb when you get out," said
Guidotti.
"Should I feel pity? No!!. I keep that for those who are
really VICTIMS of a sh***ily run city, not for those who live
like barbarians with barbarians and then complain when they
discover they haven't been treated civilly. Those who CHOOSE the
GET-HIGH culture should let others 'enjoy themselves too".
Father Guidotti said "waking up semi-naked I'd say is the
least that could have happened to you."
He said "honey, Im's sorry but 1) you frequent Piazza Verdi
which has become the "a**hole of Bologna...2) you get
disgracefully drunk...3) and then who do you go with, a North
African?!!! Notoriously, real gentlemen".
The archdiocese of Bologna said Father Guidotti's views did
not reflect its thinking.
Father Guidotti's views "are personal opinions which do not
in any way reflect the thinking and the assessment of the
Church, which condemns all kinds of violence," the archdiocese
said in a statement.
The diocese, led by Msgr Matteo Zuppi, also published a
statement from Father Guidotti in which he apologised to the
girl.
"I was wrong with my intervention, the terms, the ways, the
corrections. I can only therefore apologise to her and her
parents if my imprudent words may have added pain, which will
happen in reading them," said Father Guiditti.
The priest said he recognised he had "expressed himself in an
inappropriate way and intended to clarify his thinking".
He appealed to parents and the authorities to combat what he
called the 'get high' culture that he said was endangering young
people.
Father Guidotti said: "I ask everyone, who have perhaps a
better capacity for language and possibilities (authorities,
journalists, teachers, parents) to help dismantle this get-high
culture our young people are living in.
"Otherwise tomorrow we will have to feel pity for another
victim, and then another.
"Until when? Until we are able to say 'enough!'".
"It is necessary to supply an alternative," he said.
The priest also apologised for appearing to offend migrants,
saying he had nothing against them.
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