wfn.org | Reception of Immigrants: Italian Protestants

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Publish Joint Document

November 19, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
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APD@stanet.ch
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Reception of Immigrants: Italian Protestant Churches 
Publish Joint Document

Rome, Italy.     "The public declarations made by 
leaders of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, aimed at 
influencing public opinion and the powers of the State 
in order to select immigrants entering Italy on the 
basis of their religious affiliations, are extremely 
contradictory and devious" affirms a document of 
Italian Protestant Churches on the theme "Churches 
and Reception". The document, made public on 11 October, 
is a response to recent declarations by Cardinal 
Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop of Bologna. It was the result 
of cooperation between a wide spectrum of different 
Protestant realities in Italy. The initiative was 
proposed by the Federation of Protestant Churches 
in Italy (FCEI), but the text was prepared together 
with the Assemblies of God in Italy (ADI), the Union 
of Seventh-day Adventists in Italy (UICCA) and the 
Federation of Pentecostal Churches (FCP).

Protestant Churches recognise that "recent migratory 
waves have changed the face of our society, so much so 
that Roman Catholicism and western culture are 
no longer exclusive: Italy is now a multi-cultural 
and multi-religious country". Italian Protestants feel  
very much involved in this new situation "as citizens 
and as Christians". The document, therefore, looks at 
all those passages  from the Bible (our fundamental 
point of reference) which clearly indicate that 
foreigners are to be welcomed and shown solidarity. 
This is expressed in the radical words of the gospel 
"Love your neighbour as yourself" and "Love your enemy". 
"The reception given to others - says the document - 
becomes the parable of the  welcoming of the 'Complete 
Otherness', of God himself. While aware of the problems 
that are brought by people from different religious 
and cultural backgrounds - continues the document - 
it is "false as well as extremely dangerous to affirm 
that religion is the cause of the problems which occur 
in multi-cultural societies."