Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government was engaged on Monday in a vigorous damage-limitation exercise after Pope Benedict appeared to lend his moral authority to speculation that Italy was in danger of returning to fascism under the tycoon’s hardline right-wing leadership.
In his usual Sunday address, the Catholic pontiff expressed concern at “recent examples of racism” and reminded Catholics that it was their duty to steer others away from “racism, intolerance and exclusion [of others].”
On any other day his remarks might have been seen as no more than a restatement of Catholic doctrine. But they came in the midst of a furious dispute over an editorial published by Italy’s best-selling Catholic weekly, Famiglia Cristiana.
In an editorial on Friday condemning recent government moves against immigrants and Roma, the weekly said it was to be hoped that fascism was not “resurfacing in our country under another guise.”
The censure outraged Berlusconi’s supporters, many of whom are pious Catholics.
The leader of his parliamentary group in the upper house, Maurizio Gasparri, announced he would personally sue the priest who is Famiglia Cristiana’s editor, while the junior minister responsible for family affairs, Carlo Giovanardi, accused the magazine of “ideological malice.”
In an effort to calm the row, the Vatican’s spokesman said that Famiglia Cristiana was not authorized to speak for either the pope or the Italian bishops’ conference — which, as the magazine’s editor noted, it had never claimed to do.
The pope’s comments were seen by Berlusconi’s critics as a signal that the Vatican was not distancing itself from Famiglia Cristiana’s interpretation. Benedict cited in his address the story from the gospels of Jesus meeting a pagan woman and how he rose above his initial misgivings to perform a miracle for her daughter.
The pope said: “One of humanity’s great conquests is the overcoming of racism. Unfortunately, however, there are new and worrying examples of this in various countries, often linked to social and economic problems that nonetheless can never justify contempt or racial discrimination.”
Berlusconi’s family minister, Giovanardi, denied the pope’s words were aimed at the government.
“The pope has a global perspective,” he said. “He wasn’t talking about Italy.”
Famiglia Cristiana’s editor, Father Antonio Sciortino, said the pope “was certainly speaking to the whole world,” but added: “And therefore also to Italy where, sorry to say, there are many signs of racism that trouble us and which cannot be hidden.”
Urged on by allies in the anti-immigrant Northern League, Berlusconi has ordered a crackdown on crime and the illegal immigrants his government claims are responsible for a disproportionate share of it.
This month the government ordered troops on to the streets to combat an alleged crime wave it blames largely on illegal immigrants and Roma. Interior ministry figures show that more than a third of the arrests carried out by police last year were of non-Italians.
Illegal immigration has been made an offense, mayors have been given new security powers and deportations have been stepped up.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including