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Italian candidate enemy of Christian principles: lobby group

Emma Bonino, the extreme left Radical Party candidate for the upcoming Lazio regional elections, is a threat to the democratic principles of freedom of religious expression and to the Catholic Church's pastoral work in Italy, says a Rome-based lobby group, reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com.

Centro Culturale Lepanto (CCL) president Fabio Bernabei said that if Bonino is elected as head of the Lazio region, which includes the city of Rome, it would "seriously threaten the freedom of the apostolate of Catholics." CCL is working to warn Roman voters that Bonino is a "radical" who favors the legalization of drugs as part of her extremist "libertarian ideology."

The group called her the "staunchest enemy of any principle Christianity stands for, from abortion to same sex unions and drug liberalization, to name just a few." They note that Bonino has attacked the Vatican for its influence in Italian politics, with the slogan, "Vatican = Taliban."

CCL is organizing a rally at Rome's Circus Maximus on Saturday, March 20, to warn the populace of Rome about Bonino's radical views on homosexuality, marriage, abortion, euthanasia, embryonic research and the place of the Catholic Church in Italian civil society.

Bonino is a leading candidate for the Lazio, or "Latium" region of Italy, the same region that includes Rome and the Vatican. Lazio's population of 5,632,221 people are largely employed in and around Rome, the core of the country's public administration, finance and tourism sectors. The president is the head of the regional government and is elected for a five-year term.

As Italy's Minister of International Trade and European Affairs, Bonino pushed hard for legislation promoting the homosexualist political program and against legislation restricting in vitro fertilization and embryonic research. In 1975 Bonino founded the Information Centre on Sterilization and Abortion and was first elected to the Italian Parliament in 1976. As a Deputy, Bonino promoted the referendum that led to the legalization of abortion in Italy.

Although Bonino enjoys the support of the Communist party, the rabidly anti-Catholic Radical Party and the group Anticlericale.net, she is also widely supported for her ostensible "liberal" views and support of "human rights," by much of the clergy of Lazio.

The newspaper il Foglio canvassed priests and laity in Lazio and noted that the "grassroots Church is with Emma." The paper's survey in Viterbo found that Catholic opinion "firmly, sometimes fervently, [lies] in favor of the pro-abortion, pro-divorce, pro-euthanasia candidate, who has called the embryo 'an inert lump'." Objections, they said, are "rare, and timid."

Domenico Delle Foglie, the prominent Rome Catholic who organized the massive rally for "Family Day" two years ago, wrote in an article for the Italian bishops' newspaper Avvenire, that Bonino was supported by Franco Marini and Maria Pia Garavaglia, prominent Catholic members of the main party of the Italian left, the Partito Democratico. The two had hailed the Bonino candidacy, even recommending her as "capable of issues and initiatives that are at the heart of Catholic voters."

Delle Foglie wrote that should Bonino win the regional election, Bonino would make Lazio "a laboratory for all the zapaterisms," a reference to the radical secularizing policies of Spanish Prime Minister José Zapatero.

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TAGS: Italy Emma Bonino freedom of religion Catholic Church Fabio Bernabei Christianity homosexuality marriage abortion euthanasia Christian principles

[03/22/2010]

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