Italy's public television broadcaster RAI1 has been accused of censoring an episode of a German television series in which two men marry in a Catholic convent, Italian daily La Repubblica reported.

The series A Cyclone in the Convent (original title Un Himmels Willen) began airing in Italy in 2004.

On Wednesday morning, the station decided to skip over the episode titled Romeo and Romeo and air the series' next chapter, A Legendary Grandfather, instead.

In Romeo and Romeo, production designer Gerhard Scharf and teacher Gunther Reichert decide to get married in the convent's chapel. The ceremony is officiated by the mayor. (The marriage scene, in German, is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

“[T]he series is too long, we had to pull out one episode,” said Mauro Mazza, the station's director responsible for censorship. He added that had the marriage been held at a city hall there would have been no problem.

It is not the first time RAI has been accused of censoring gay relationships.

In 2008, the broadcaster was criticized for censoring sex scenes in the Ang Lee-directed Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain, which featured two cowboys in love separated by homophobia in a small town.