Reuters - A leading cardinal's comments that the Italian government should discriminate against Muslim immigration in order to preserve the country's Catholic identity has set off a storm of controversy. Government ministers and some priests condemned as dangerous and reactionary Cardinal Giacomo Biffi's stinging comments against Muslims made in a letter to his Bologna archdiocese.
Only the once separatist-minded Northern League and the far-right National Alliance party agreed with Cardinal Biffi, a conservative who is sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to Pope John Paul. "I read about Cardinal Biffi's words with disbelief," said Mr Livia Turco, a practising Catholic who is Minister for Social Affairs and partly responsible for immigration policy. "A secular and democratic state can never accept. . . discrimination based on religion, ethnicity or culture."