Pardi's conservative critics say she's spreading a pro-homosexuality theory. The new mayor of Venice, Luidi Brugnaro, banned the book (and about 50 others) from schools in June. That decision caused 250 Italian authors to demand their own books be removed from city shelves as a "protest against an appalling gesture of censorship and ignorance," the paper reports.
In a bid for recognition, Pardi sent a package to Pope Francis with seven or eight children's books addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues from her publisher, Lo Stampatello. She included a heartfelt note explaining her predicament.
"Many parishes across the country are in this period sullying our name and telling falsehoods about our work which deeply offends us," she writes. "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?"
Much to her surprise, the Pope wrote back.
"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," writes Peter B. Wells, a senior official at the Vatican secretariat of state, in the letter dated July 9.