Vatican sends Pope Francis’ letter of thanks with official apostolic blessing to controversial author of gay children’s books

Pope Francis has sent a letter of “gratitude” containing his official apostolic blessing to controversial Italian author Francesca Pardi for a children’s book in which an egg encounters all sorts of different families, including those headed by gay penguins and lesbian rabbits.

In the book, the egg encounters a pair of gay penguins, lesbian rabbits successfully bringing up a family, as well as other family models, including a single parent hippo, a mixed race dog couple, and kangaroos that have adopted polar bear cubs.

The author, Pardi, is herself in a same-sex relationship with her business partner, Maria Silvia Fiengo, but the pair had to travel to Spain to be legally married since gay marriage is not legal in Italy.

THE VATICAN RESPONDS WITH A LETTER SIGNED BY THE POPE

Pardi was reported by The Guardian Newspaper (www.theguardian.com) to have submitted a parcel of children’s books promoting the acceptance of homosexuality and gender theory to Pope Francis in June after Venice’s mayor Luigi Brugnaro publicly banned the author’s newest book, Piccolo Uovo (Little Egg), from children’s schools. The book was criticized by pro-family leaders for promoting non-natural family structures of two men and two women.

The letter from the Vatican, dated July 9, was a response to a parcel of children’s books sent by Pardi to the pontiff in June. The collection from her publisher, Lo Stampatello, including seven or eight books which deal with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues (LGBT), was accompanied by a letter from the author describing the attacks she has come under in recent months.

Pardi wrote: “Many parishes across the country are in this period sullying our name and telling falsehoods about our work which deeply offends us. We have respect for Catholics. … A lot of Catholics give back the same respect, why can’t we have the whole hierarchy of the church behind us?”

The Guardian is reporting that Pardi has now “found an unlikely supporter in Pope Francis,” who through his staff has responded to the author and is presented as “praising her work.”

The Guardian quotes the following from the Vatican letter sent to Pardi: “His Holiness is grateful for the thoughtful gesture and for the feelings which it

evoked, hoping for an always more fruitful activity in the service of young generations and the spread of genuine human and Christian values,” wrote Peter B. Wells, a senior official at the Vatican Secretariat of State, in a letter.

Pardi said she had not expected a reply and was surprised to receive the letter at her Milan home. “It’s not that I think that he’s for gay families, because there’s the Catholic doctrine, but we mustn’t think that we don’t have rights,” she said.