Overview
- Monsignor Giuseppe Laterza made the remarks during the fifth day of an Advent Novena at the cathedral in Conversano, near Bari.
- The homily, including the line “We should tell that to some feminist,” was captured on the cathedral’s Facebook livestream and the video continues to circulate.
- Women’s advocates denounced the framing as patriarchal, with activist Tea Dubois arguing that invoking Mary to teach obedience is used to police women’s autonomy.
- Reactions in the church were mixed, according to local reporting, with some congregants nodding and others visibly dismayed.
- Laterza is identified as the Holy See’s nuncio to the Central African Republic and Chad, and as of the latest reports there has been no official Vatican response.