‘Aquarius’ becomes the war cry of the Roman church
against the new Italian government, by Ann Corcoran, 6/13/18.
Italian Church and new government finally face off over Aquarius. Finally, the wait is over and – unsurprisingly – the battle between the Church and Italy’s ruling coalition of right-wing populists, Northern League, and anti-establishment party, Five Star Movement, will be centered around immigration. (Dear Donald, pay attention, immigration is THE issue of the century!)
Finally, this impasse in the Mediterranean Sea pushed the Italian Church to finally show its daggers, proving that when it comes to immigration they won’t back down.
On twitter??? Italian Interior Minister Salvini has
started a new hashtag: #CloseThePorts Use it! Readers,
when the Italian government held firm and sent the so-called ‘rescue ship’ Aquarius packing it
drew the battle lines with the Italian Catholic Church—that is what the church
is saying!
Sea
arrivals in Italy have fallen from 153,000 in 2016 to 114,000 in 2017 to 14,000
for the first 5 months in 2018.
Hey Spain! You are next! I’m writing
about this story again today because it represents a critical juncture for the
future of Europe. There is hope (I think!) as I wrote a couple of days
ago, here, for the
survival of Western Civilization in its birthplace, but action to save it must
be swift and happen NOW.
Here
is the Crux headline
(Taking
the Catholic pulse): ROME
– For months the Vatican waited, silently, to see how to engage Italy’s new
populist government. For months the Italian bishops offered support and
patience as political parties clumsily attempted to create a new government.
Promising vigilance, for months Italy’s high-ranking clergy looked for points
of dialogue, but also contrast, with the country’s infant leadership.
Crux continues….. “Beating your fists on the
table is absurd before endangered lives and the international law that imposes
the rescue of people at sea,” said Cardinal Francesco Montenegro, president of
Italian Caritas and head of the Italian bishops’ conference’s immigration
committee.
“Politics
must be the ability to dialogue and search for the common good, safeguarding
human rights above all else,” the archbishop of the Southern Italian town of
Agrigento said, before adding that “politics must go back to knowing its job.”
The “Sarajevo” for the battle between Italian bishops and Matteo
Salvini, leader of the Northern League, is Aquarius, a rescue boat that was
carrying more than 600 immigrants and refugees, including seven pregnant women
and 123 unaccompanied minors. [Or put more accurately, a boat carrying over 600 men and boys who are
economic migrants NOT refugees.—ed]
First of all, Aquarius was a magnifying glass for the profound ruptures
within the European Union concerning immigration, and the weaknesses of the Dublin
regulations, which puts most of the burden on first arrival countries such as
Italy and Greece, that also happen to be
weakest economically.
The
fact that Spain offered to take Aquarius “is not a victory for Italy,”
Montenegro told media outlets on Monday, “but a loss for politics in general
and for the European Union in particular.”
Secondly
the case was an important trial balloon for the Northern League and Five Star
Movement coalition. While some mayors chose to ignore Salvini’s call to close
ports, most of the party members stayed in line.
Already
during the election season, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, President of the
Italian bishops’ conference, CEI, only barely hid his opposition to the
Northern League and its leader, calling its representatives “not to blow on the
fire of frustration and social rage.”
Already Salvini stated that under his leadership, Italy won’t budge.
“With other Aquarius boats we will have the same behavior,” he said, as he
celebrated the success of his tactic. Let the battle for the future of Europe begin!
More here. Go here for my complete archive on the ‘Invasion of Europe’—more than
ten years in the making! Don’t
miss this post from 2015 where
we reported that former Australian Prime Minister Abbott said that Europe must
turn back the boats. Three years and hundreds of thousands of migrants later,
they are getting the message.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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