(Italy) Right-wingers tell Pope to stay out of politics (stop its preaching on immigration)
Right-wingers tell Pope to stay out of politics
The anti-immigration Northern League party has called on the Catholic Church to stop its "religious preaching" on immigration, just days after a plea from Pope Francis for greater tolerance in Italy.
Last Monday the Pope flew on his first trip outside Rome to the tiny of island of Lampedusa to "cry for the dead" migrants and refugees who perish trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
He urged people to heed "the cries of others" on a trip that humanitarian organisations and Italian parliament speaker Laura Boldrini, a former United Nations refugee worker, hailed as "historic".
But some politicians, who are little inclined to defend secularism in Italy on issues such as crucifixes in churches, abortion or gay marriage, called for greater "autonomy" from the Church.
Fabrizio Cicchitto, a deputy from Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, said there was a difference between "religious preaching" and "a state handling a difficult, complex and insidious phenomenon".
http://www.thelocal.it/20130716/northern-league-tells-pope-to-stay-out-of-politics
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