Local police have begun offer protection to the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, because of threats made against him over his comments on the legalization of homosexual unions in Italy.

Police officials decided to provide the archbishop with security after the Cathedral of Genoa was defaced with graffiti in an apparent reaction to the archbishop’s comments.

Archbishop Bagnasco became the target of harsh criticism from gay activists after he criticized a measure that would legalize same-sex and civil unions.

“Why not say no to various forms of living together, to the creating of alternative forms of the family?  Why not say no to the incest of a brother and a sister who live together and have children in Great Britain?  Why not say not to the party of pederasts in Holland?” the archbishop asked.

He warned that the passage of laws legalizing such unions would open the door to all kinds of perverse relationships and would be difficult to roll back.