Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right government reacted angrily on Thursday to speculation in a Roman Catholic weekly that Italy may be witnessing the re-birth of fascism.
The Vatican distanced itself from the editorial in Famiglia Cristiana.
Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said it “does not express the views of the Holy See” or of Italian bishops.
The government had already accused the magazine of being “Catho-communist” after its last editorial said tough new anti-crime measures would hurt the destitute.
Rather than backing off, the magazine hit back with a piece citing a report on racism in Italy in French magazine Esprit.
It concluded: “Let’s hope the suspicion is unfounded that fascism is resurfacing in our country under another guise.”
The magazine, which ex-president Francesco Cossiga termed “the publicity arm of the Catholic left”, is sold at churches and news stands and has a circulation of 600,000 copies a week.
The center right is often labeled “fascist” by opposition politicians and intellectuals — partly because of the unapologetic former fascists in its ranks and partly because of its stand on illegal immigrants and crime.
It has been accused of racism by rights groups and EU politicians and officials for plans to fingerprint Roma children living in illegal camps, and one of the coalition’s main partners, the Northern League, uses xenophobic rhetoric.
Roberto Cota, a lawmaker with the Northern League contended that despite the magazine’s comment, “the Catholic world agrees with the security measures adopted by the government and approved by parliament.”
The head of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party in the upper house of parliament, Maurizio Gasparri, said he would sue the editor of the magazine.
The government’s undersecretary for family affairs, Carlo Giovanardi, said “the only fascism present in Italy today are the brutal tones which Famiglia Cristiana uses.”
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