Rallies for, against war divide
Rome
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
Rarely have the fissures caused by American foreign policy been on
such clear display as in Rome Nov. 10, when two massive demonstrations, one
pro-war and the other against, paralyzed the city. In microcosm, the events
illustrated the tensions caused by the conflict, both among U.S. allies and
within the Catholic world.
The first event, billed as USA Day, was a fervently
pro-American rally organized by Italys political right. The second, an
antiwar march that featured the burning of American, Israeli and European Union
flags, was put together by labor unions, Italys still-strong Communist
Party and a variety of leftist youth groups.
Perhaps reflecting the ambivalence of the Vatican and other church
leaders, there was virtually no organized Catholic presence at either event.
This is unusual in Italy, where 96 percent of the population is officially
Catholic and church groups play central roles in the countrys political
life.
Pope John Paul II and other Catholic leaders have repeatedly
prayed for peace, but many have also expressed understanding for the American
response to the terrorist attacks.
By most accounts, the antiwar march won the numbers game, drawing
an estimated 100,000 people, while USA Day brought somewhere
between 40,000 and 60,000 people to Romes Piazza del Popolo. That success
came on the heels of an Oct. 14 pacifist march to Assisi, birthplace of famed
peacemaker St. Francis, which attracted 250,000 people.
To date, however, burgeoning antiwar sentiment has had little
impact on Italian policy. The countrys parliament Nov. 7 voted 513 to 35
to send Italian troops into combat as part of the coalition led by the United
States and Great Britain.
Ostensibly, USA Day, an idea first floated by the
right-wing Italian newspaper Il Foglio, was styled as an expression of
solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attacks. A group of New York City
firefighters was on hand to receive plaudits, including one whose father, also
a firefighter, was among the 340 who died in the Sept. 11 attack on the World
Trade Center.
The group had earlier been received by the pope, and presented to
him the white helmet of Franciscan Fr. Mychal F. Judge, the fire department
chaplain who died Sept. 11.
In fact, however, USA Day was widely seen in Italy as
a partisan expression of support for the war and for the pro-American policies
of conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Piazza del Popolo was filled with people waving thousands of
American flags, which had been on sale at entrances to the piazza for hours. A
giant video screen repeatedly played footage of the Sept. 11 attacks, along
with President George W. Bushs Youre either with us or
against us speech and strains of God Bless America.
Though the majority of participants were Italians bused in from
around the country by Berlusconis party, there were a number of other
constituencies present, including a small group of Pakistani Christians
pleading with the West to save the Christians in Muslim
nations.
In his address, Berlusconi wrapped himself in the American cause.
He alluded to President John F. Kennedys famous declaration that he felt
himself a Berliner when he visited Berlin in 1963, two years after the Berlin
Wall went up. Berlusconi said that in light of Sept. 11, I am proud to
say that today we are all citizens of New York.
Most marchers at the antiwar event carried placards reading
Not in my name to express opposition to sending troops. On one bank
of the Circus Maximus, where in antiquity prisoners of war were paraded by
conquering Roman generals, protestors illuminated a giant No War
message using thousands of candles.
There were a few expressions of explicitly anti-American
sentiment, including the classic exhortation Yankee go home and a
few burned American flags.
Despite the absence of an organized Catholic presence at either
event, progressive stalwarts such as Fr. Vitaliano Della Salla were among the
VIPs at the antiwar march.
The curia has me under pressure, and is threatening to take
away my parish, Della Salla told reporters afterwards. But if I
paid attention to the orders of my Talibanesque superiors, all I would have
permission to do is breathe, eat and say Mass.
Outside the march, a few other Catholic leaders were sharply
critical of the war. Bishop Raffaele Nogaro of Caserta said that Catholic
members of Parliament who voted to send troops did so against
conscience.
Mussolini wanted to participate in dividing the spoils of
victory, and now we have decided to sit at the table of the great powers
instead of working for peace, Nogaro said.
The handful of American tourists drawn to USA Day by
the flags and familiar music seemed unaware of the political overtones.
We stumbled across it, and it was just something I had to
see, said John Gulliford, 21, of Philadelphia, who is spending a semester
traveling through Europe. The support is pretty amazing.
Gulliford told NCR that an Italian couple had mentioned
something to him about an antiwar rally. But they said its just
that there are still a lot of Communists in Italy, he said.
John L. Allen Jr. is the Rome correspondent for NCR.
His e-mail address is jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, November 23,
2001
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