Alfredo Ormando was a gay Italian writer who set himself on fire in Saint Peter’s Square, in Rome, to protest the attitudes and policies of the Roman Catholic Church regarding homosexual Christians. On January 13, 1998, Alfredo Ormando, a 39-year old Italian writer, arrived in Rome just as the sun was rising. After his long journey from Sicily, he found his way to the empty piazza of the Vatican and, facing the entrance to the Basilica, knelt down as if to pray. He made a rapid hand gesture and suddenly was engulfed in flames. Before the Church and, he hoped, the world, Alfredo Ormando had set himself on fire. He left the following statement before his death:
“I hope they’ll understand the message I want to leave: it is a form of protest against the Church that demonizes homosexuality and at the same time all of nature, because homosexuality is a child of Mother Nature.”