ROME — A far greater crowd than expected descended on the piazza outside the “Mother of All Churches” in Rome on June 20 to take part in a protest against same-sex-rights legislation currently passing through the Italian Parliament and the indoctrination of gender ideology in schools.

“We are a million,” organizers said from the stage, according to the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. The throng, many of them families, came to the piazza of St. John Lateran to take part in “Family Day.” Its aim was to support a child’s right to a mother and father and to assert that children should not be taught sex education from infancy, nor “gender ideology.” The piazza has a capacity of 300,000, but it easily exceeded that, according to organizers.

Gender ideology enforces the growing secular idea that sexual orientation is the main criterion of human identity, critics contend. Its opponents, such as German Catholic author Gabriele Kuby, characterize it as a totalitarian attack on human dignity, developing under the cloak of sexual freedom, that will destroy the family.

The high turnout was seen as a major achievement, given that the event was organized in less than three weeks and had only tacit support from the Italian bishops’ conference.

“It’s fantastic,” Giovanni Zenone, a father of six from northern Italy, told the Register. “Finally, people have gathered to fight this terrible ideology.”

The square was packed even before the beginning of the event, whose slogan was “Let’s Defend Our Children.” The aim of the demonstration, organized by a coalition of pro-life and pro-family groups, was to “reaffirm the right of a mom and dad to educate their children and stop the ideological colonization of gender theory in schools and in parliament.”

Organizers said the goal of the event was to thwart the “Cirinnà bill.” Introduced by socialist Sen. Monica Cirinnà, the legislation proposes giving same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples. Italy’s bishops have publicly opposed the bill, saying it doesn’t reflect the will of the Italian people, represents “ideological enforcement” and would introduce confusion when the family is “based on marriage between a man and a woman.”

Organizing committee spokesman Massimo Gandolfini said, “We could have chosen other places in Rome, but our challenge was to fill Piazza San Giovanni with hundreds of thousands of families from all over Italy, to protect the innocence of children and their right to have a father and a mother, and to reiterate the clearest opposition to any attempt to change our beautiful constitution by equating homosexual unions to marriage.”

Homosexual-rights advocates note that Italy is the only remaining Western European nation where neither civil unions nor same-sex “marriages” are recognized.

After the recent referendum to allow same-sex “marriage” in Ireland in May, becoming the 11th European country to have legalized same-sex “marriage,” and now that seven other European countries offer civil unions for same-sex couples, Italy is feeling the pressure to legislate on these issues.

On June 20, demonstrators held up flags, balloons and colorful banners that read: “Any threat to the family is a threat to society,” “Defend Your Families,” “Hands Off Our Children” and “God Made Them Male and Female.”

They came from all the regions of Italy and included members from the Neocatechumenal Way, which brought 200,000 members from all over the country, representatives from evangelical groups, Italy’s “Movement for Life” and “La Manif Pour Tous,”  the France-based organization that staged a massive campaign against same-sex “marriage” and adoption of children by same-sex couples in France in 2012. A similar pro-marriage and pro-family demonstration for marriage in France in 2013 drew more than 1 million people.

Various speakers rallied the crowd with impassioned pleas to end the indoctrination of “gender ideology” in schools. One father explained how his son came home from school telling him his teacher taught his class that Italy is cruel and unjust because it doesn’t allow same-sex “marriage.” “Basta! Basta! Basta!” (Enough! Enough! Enough!) the father shouted to rapturous cheers and applause.

A representative from “The Association of Friends of Homosexual Persons” told the crowd that his organization rejects the Cirinnà bill because “it doesn’t do gay people any good.” Same-sex “marriage,” he added, “makes no anthropological sense other than an injustice.”

Many praised Pope Francis’ lead in promoting marriage and the family. Most recently, the Holy Father insisted that the “complementarity of man and woman” is essential to marriage and that gender ideology is “demonic.” He has compared it to the educational policies of Hitler and said it fails to recognized “the order of creation.”

Kiko Arguello, the Spanish founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, said from the stage, “The Holy Father is with us. I wrote to the Holy Father, after receiving letters from some families, and the Pope responded when, the Sunday before, he said there are ideologies that colonize families and against which we must act.”

On June 15, Pope Francis called on parents to counter the “ideological colonization” of their children, such as when they are taught by teachers or through school books that differences between male and female are unimportant or are invented social conventions.

Giorgia Meloni, of the pro-family group Brothers of Italy, said she hoped this “extraordinary mobilization of people convinces everyone of the opportunity to stop the madness of gender indoctrination in schools.” She said politics “cannot be blind and deaf to the appeal of Italian families.”

“A big resistance is gathering,” said Alessandra Graziano, who was attending the protest along with her husband and son. “In parishes, we have many families who are very worried about this, because in schools nowadays teachers are obliged to teach this, but the Catechism is abolished.”

A small number of clergy were also present at the protest. Father Sylvester, a Polish priest studying in Rome, said he was very happy to see such a large crowd.

“The voice of the family is a very important voice, because each civilization passes through the family; it has always been that way,” he said. “The future depends on the family.”