The Vatican has expressed disappointment with the results of the Italian general elections which saw a surge in popularity for an anti-immigrant party.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, today gave a strongly pro-migrant speech two days after an election that saw major gains for the Northern League, whose leader Matteo Salvini swore on the bible and a rosary that he would stop “all clandestine migrants” from entering the country.
“The Holy See has to work in whatever conditions arise,” the cardinal told Catholic agency SIR on the sidelines of a fathering of the International Catholic Commission for Migration. “We can’t (always) have the society that we would like to have, or the conditions that we would like to have.”
While the results show party or coalition has enough support in parliament to form a government, the big winners were the League – the largest party in a right-wing coalition – and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.
Salvini, who has been seen pictured holding T-shirts saying “My Pope is Benedict”, has disagreed sharply with Pope Francis who has made a greater welcome for refugees a key concern of his papacy.
But the Pope has broken a long Vatican tradition by not becoming involved in the Italian general election, declining even from mentioning during his Angelus last Sunday, the day that Italians went to the poll.
While the secretary-general the Italian bishops’ conference, Bishop Nunzio Galantino, rebuked Salvini for his anti-migrant rhetoric, the Church’s involvement in this election pales into comparison from the influence and deal making of influential Italian prelate Cardinal Camillo Ruini during John Paul II’s papacy.
Under this pontificate, the Vatican has preferred to issue a big-picture, internationalist political message rather than becoming involved in domestic politics.
Cardinal Parolin said the Holy See would continue its “work of education” which he said would take a “long time” and in his speech to the commission the cardinal pointed out the most “economically advanced" nations "owe a great deal of their development to migrants.”
Pic: Matteo Salvini attends an electoral meeting of the Lega coalition at the Adriano's Temple in Rome, Italy, on 1st March 2018. Italy is set to hold a general election to form a new parliament and government on March 4, 2018 (Photo by Paolo Manzo/NurPhoto/Sipa USA/PA)
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