Gypsies: the silence of the Pope, when it’s not convenient to speak. Only 2 years ago, Berlusconi’s Government, whose coalition includes the xenophobic Northern League (the equivalent of the BNP), announced plans to fingerprint every Gypsy in Italy, including children. The row reached the point where the Vatican felt obliged to step in… and it did not speak up for the gypsies…

Gypsies: the silence of the Pope, when it’s not convenient to speak

The Protest the Pope Campaign supports universal human rights. We oppose the Vatican policies and teachings that discriminate people because of their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion or belief. In an apparent criticism of France’s mass deportation of Roma (Gypsy) immigrants, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday (Aug. 22) urged French-speaking Catholics to “accept legitimate human diversity” and practice “universal fraternity.” We support these words. But we must not forget the silence of the Vatican in other circumstances as serious as the deportation happening in France.

Only 2 years ago, Berlusconi’s Government, whose coalition includes the xenophobic Northern League (the equivalent of the BNP), announced plans to fingerprint every Gypsy in Italy, including children. The plans were ditched because of the outrage they caused, with the Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog issuing an unusually strong-worded statement hinting that the plan by the Italian authorities to fingerprint Roma amounted to fascism. “This proposal invites historical analogies which are so obvious that they do not even have to be spelled out,” Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis said in a written statement.

Before the EU made this statement, “Famiglia Cristiana” (i.e. Christian Family), a mass-circulation Roman Catholic magazine, said exactly the same. The Berlusconi administration — the third formed by Mr Berlusconi since he entered politics in 1994 — prides itself on its close links to the Vatican and the Catholic Church. The Vatican speaks openly against opposition leaders. While the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Tarcisio Bertone, attends dinners with Berlusconi and his allies. When “Famiglia Cristiana” compared the fingerprinting of Roma children in Italian Gypsy camps to the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis before and during the Second World War, Government ministers rounded in fury on the Christian Magazine. The row reached the point where the Vatican felt obliged to step in… and it did not speak up for the gypsies… It distanced itself from the Catholic magazine that was warning of a fascist revival also feared by the Council of Europe.

You can read more on the plan to fingerprint the children of the Gypsies on the BBC and Usa Today. The silence of the Pope and the Vatican, failing to speak up for the Gypsies, is described on the Times. JUST ONE MORE OF THE HUNDREDS OF REASONS TO "Protest the Pope" http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/blog/

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