Twilight in Italy

For Italian Protestants, the going has never been very easy. The followers of 12th Century Protestant Peter Waldo were hunted in the hills for 650 years; in a single day, 150 of them were burned alive. Things are not that bad now. But the 80,000-odd Protestants in postFascist Italy find their prospects for religious liberty looking worse instead of better. In the current Christian Century, Journalist Robert Root reports the situation under the pessimistic title, "Twilight of Religious Liberty":

"Protestants in Italy are enjoying the last weeks of liberty to proclaim their faith with rights more or less equal to Roman Catholicism's. This spring, barring some development not now foreseen in Rome, a new postFascist constitution will be approved which will put Italian Protestantism back into the same strait-jacket that Mussolini kept it in. ...

"Immediately after liberation, the air of freedom swept over Italy. It is generally admitted that Protestants are still freer today than they were under the Duce. But there are many signs of growing Catholic influence. . . .

"At the end of the war . . . the American military authorized the minority groups to have radio services. . . . The response was gratifying. Letters requesting more information poured in from over the country. It should have surprised no one, therefore, that last fall pressures began to restrict Protestant radio privileges. These behind-the-scenes forces in Italy are just as hard to put a finger on as are those barring Negroes from some American restaurants, but they are just as certain and effective. . . ."

War & Wedding Rings. Meanwhile, Observer Root finds both Catholics and Protestants deeply concerned at another trend in postwar Italy--anti-clericalism:

"After World War I also. Italy experienced a surge of anticlericalism. But this time the tide is much stronger, because in the popular mind the church has been so closely connected with the war and Fascism. Italians recall that it was the priests who collected their wedding rings to provide funds for the Ethiopian war.

". . . Anticlericalism plays into Protestantism's hands, but I found no Protestant who approved of its methods. For while the movement is so far largely against priests and hierarchy, it could easily spill over into antireligion. . . ."

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