ITALY
La Repubblica
Journalist Curzio Maltese interviewed Monsignor Atuire, director of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Vatican world-wide travel company.
The headline is ""WE USE THE HELP FOR THE COMMON GOOD, ITALY COULD BE GRATEFUL TO THE CHURCH"
After a series of articles about how much the Catholic church is costing Italian taxpayers, this journalist gathered reactions, especially one from the Vatican Secretary of State who said, "Let's stop it." Monsignor Atuire was willing to be interviewed on the subject. He is a 40-year-old native of Ghana who became a priest 10 years ago after studying to be an engineer in London and receiving a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical University. Cardinal Camillo Ruini made him CEO of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi six months ago. This is a travel business that serves millions of pilgrims each year. He could be a member of any government in Europe, he speaks half a dozen languages and he is learned in subjects varying from medieval history to the most updated marketing techniques. His only defect, at least for a politician in Italy, is that he has a high sense of humor.
His answers to the charges of the journalist are as follows:
1) It's not true that Luciano Moggi, a very known businessman with a bad reputation, was one of the patrons of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi.
2) It wasn't true that, as the Wall Street Journal wrote in the recent past, the number of pilgrims who travel with the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi reaches 5 million a year.
3) He doesn't share the view that religious tourism gets fiscal privileges, uses unpaid or underpaid workers, doesn't pay taxes and damages fair competition.
4) He recognizes the workers rights, even if they have no trade union affiliates. Maternity leave is guaranteed up to three years. The workers are not exploited and as John XXIII said once, responding to the question,"How many people work in the Vatican?" He answered "half of them."
5) As to real estate tax evasion he denies it, for they use normal touristic structures in Italy and everywhere and they pay taxes according to the laws. They don't run real estate but they only offer services.
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6) He says there are no privileges and that his work is also meant to help tourism in Italy, which was in the past the first country in the world for tourism but that it has now descended to fifth place. Italy hasn't a real tourism policy. Only sea and mountain resorts are being publicized but other countries like Croatia and Egypt can offer the same at a lower price. The real underestimated and inimitable treasures of Italy are the many little medieval towns, often abandoned or not sufficiently evaluated. The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi wants to restore those places, in favor of Italy and Europe too. Pilgrimages were for centuries the only way Europeans could know each other, meet each other, speak to each other, in the brief intervals between the wars.
7) He denies they sell false reliquaries, like amulets or fake symbols. Pilgrims are warned in Fatima, Guadalupe and Lourdes that it's not the water which makes miracles. He says it's the private businessmen who make those kind of speculations.
8) It's not true, like Israel's government says, that we want fiscal or exclusive privileges in the Holy Land. The truth is that the primary source for the Palestinians is the presence of the pilgrims in Bethlehem and our bringing them there to buy things in the local artisan shops is the only way for the people to survive. It's true we want to use our guides, because they are trained as Catholics who explain to other Catholics who want to know the places described in the Bible and the New Testament and they are not interested to assume unilateral positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the contrary, they want to be messengers of peace in the Holy Land.
9) He says that the ambiguity and confusion of the roles between state and church in Italy is due to the past history. In other countries, people give their money voluntarily to their church. But in Italy the Vatican state was born after the cancellation of the temporal powers which had been previously exercised by the church. Then there was the signing of the Concordato (The Accord) between Mussolini and the Pope. In Italy, he says there is a kind of conviction that the church is a political institution more than a reality regarding all its citizens. In each country there are historical facts and motivations which brought to the way in which the presence of the church is perceived. He says it would be intellectually honest, however, if there were concrete problems to be solved, to face them with no prejudice and for the common good.
10) He doesn't know if the Concordato must be rewritten but he only knows that dialogue instead of shouting is very important.
11) He doesn't know if his position is shared by the other Catholic hierarchies as well as the journalist can't be sure that his positions are shared by the Italian laity.
The journalist responds he is not sure, too, but that a dialogue can begin. The answer of Monsignor Atuire is that, "In Italy a normal and civil discussion is becoming very difficult. There is always someone ready to brand everything. If you say something you can be branded as a 'clerical.' You say another thing you can be branded 'anti-clerical' and so on for the words fascist, communist etc." For centuries, he says, secular and Catholic people have had a dialogue. "I'm favorable to the recuperation of the pilgrims' streets, not to the crusades.", he concludes.