You would think Pope Francis – a progressive who believes in female empowerment – would be delighted that Giorgia Meloni is set to become the first female Prime Minister of Italy. As polls predicted, a centre-right coalition made up of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Forward Italy) and Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord (Northern League) looks set to win, with Meloni’s party the largest.
Yet, the very same day as Italians were going to the polls and turning out for a politician and alliance which has made a big noise about secure borders, Pope Francis urged Italians to help migrants. To be fair, Sunday was the Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, but the words felt more than coincidental. This is a pontiff, after all, who has called on Catholics to take in refugees in the past, asking “why not make a policy of the West where immigrants are included with the principle that the migrant should be welcomed, accompanied, promoted, and integrated?” He said on his return from Kazakhstan, “migration I think at this time should be taken seriously, because it raises the intellectual and congenial value of the West a little bit.”
Speaking on Sunday, the Pope said: “Migrants are to be welcomed, accompanied, promoted and integrated.” This clearly does not resonate with many Italians, with their country at the forefront of migrant crossings from Africa. Meloni’s electoral appeal was in no small part thanks to her strong position on the matter, having previously said Italians needed to “repatriate the migrants back to their countries and then sink the boats that rescued them.” A Meloni meltdown had been underway in the press long before Sunday. Now we know that meltdown has likely spread to the Vatican.
But the fact Meloni has said “yes to the universality of the cross” should appeal to Pope Francis. But, as with governments in Hungary and Poland, this more civilisational form of Christianity appears to be one the Pope rejects, a Pope who presumably disagrees when Meloni says “radical Islam” is “menacing our roots”, and “yes to secure borders, no to mass immigration.” Still, one would have thought her support for the family would appeal to the Catholic hierarchy. Perhaps not. Not that Meloni has not been courting them, albeit not Francis’s allies. Instead, Meloni has pitched her message to traditionalist prelates, notably African cardinal Robert Sarah.
Strikingly, Meloni has said she has failed at times to understand Pope Francis. In her autobiography, while Meloni called St. John Paul II “the greatest pope of the modern era,” and even “a saint,” she said of the incumbent, “even though I’m Catholic and I’ve never allowed myself to criticise a pope, I admit that I haven’t always understood Pope Francis.” Back in 2020, she said, “I’m a believer and I listen to the words of His Holiness, but on a political level I don’t always share them.” The stage could be set for a showdown, especially as the Pope’s encroachments on the Order of Malta opens the possibility of Italy muscling in on Vatican City’s sovereignty.
The situation could well calm down, however. Frankly, there is little chance of Italy going the way of Hungary and Poland. As in France and, more recently, Sweden, support for the hard right comes up against demographic and cultural realities which mean such politics is often fighting a losing battle. Italy has already become a generally progressive society with a largely open border. Meanwhile, Italy has also succumbed to the forces of secularism. Between 2006 and 2020, for instance, weekly church attendance fell from 18.3 million to 12 million. Plus, as in much of western Europe, there is overrepresentation among older people. Today, barely one-quarter of Italy’s Catholics are practising.
The Pope will likely be alarmed that a politician who has said openly that she has failed at times to understand him, while heaping praising on St. Pope John Paul II, and whose views clash with his on immigration, is set to become the next Italian leader. The election could also drive an even bigger wedge between the Pope and his brand of Christianity, and the more civilisational brand emerging especially in central and eastern Europe. That said, unlike in the Czech Republic, Hungary or Poland, demographic and cultural conditions in Italy may tie Meloni’s hands and – whatever issues she may have with Brussels – as a Eurozone state, Italy’s hands are largely tied here as well. Nevertheless, the stage is surely set for an uneasy relationship between the new government in Rome and the Holy See.
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