Italy: Silvio Berlusconi under fire as Pope appears to back warning about fascism

Guardian

Silvio Berlusconi's government was engaged yesterday 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 rightwing 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 in society 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 stressed that Famiglia Cristiana was not authorised 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.......