Vatican cancels women's team debut match after pro-choice protest

The Vatican abandoned the debut international match of its new women’s soccer team after members of the opposing team demonstrated against the Catholic church’s opposition to abortion and gay rights.

The new Vatican women’s squad was announced with great fanfare in May to combat criticism that the church was not doing enough to include women in key positions amid major scandals over the sexual abuse of nuns by members of the clergy.

But as the Vatican anthem was played before the assembled teams, several of the players and suppoters from Austrian team Mariahilf lifted their jerseys to expose diagrams of female reproductive organs.

One Austrian player had written “My body, my rule” on her back and banners with “Against Homophobia” were unfurled by spectators in the stands.

The pope’s new envoy to Austria, Monsignor Pedro Lopez Quintana, was watching from the sidelines as the umpire abandoned the match before the whistle was even blown.

"The game was called off because we are here for the sport, and not for political or other messages", public broadcaster ORF quoted Danilo Zennaro, a representative of the Vatican sports association, as saying.

A player from the Austrian capital's Mariahilf women's team said they hadn't expected the protest action to lead to the game to be scrapped.

The Vatican’s acting press spokesman, Alessandro Gisotti, declined to comment on Sunday but referred The Telegraph to an article published by Vatican news which said: “The Vatican players were expecting a simple game of sport and with their sports manager took a difficult decision, not to contest the game and continue the exploitation of an event for which they had prepared with joy.”

Last month Pope Francis made headlines when he said that abortion was completely unacceptable, regardless of whether a fetus was fatally ill or had disorders.

He compared the act of abortion to “hiring a hitman” and urged doctors to help women bring to term even pregnancies likely to end in the death of a child at birth or soon after.

The Vatican women's team includes no nuns but is made up of women who either work in the tiny Vatican state, or are the wives and daughters of men who are employed there.