July 2005

We send you warm summer greetings from Italy!

Meeting a couple for the first time recently, they asked us a question that has often surfaced, "Why are you involved in interfaith dialogue in a place such as Italy?" They stated the obvious; Italy is not a country at war, has not been directly attacked because of its political policies, nor has it been linked by the media to civil strife. So what is the point of this small organization, Confronti, which is engaged in education and interfaith dialogue?

Since Confronti is a service under the Waldensian Church's umbrella, we must always cite the rich Waldensian history as part of the motivation. The Waldensians have suffered at the hands of civil and religious authorities for 700 years. They were oppressed and persecuted due to their interpretation of the Bible and their commitment to genuine poverty and liberty to preach. Even their right to exist was denied until 1848, when they, along with the Jewish population, officially received civil liberties.

Protestants in Italy today represent less than half a percent of the population, and the Waldensian Church, in union with the Methodist and Baptist churches, form a part of this tiny group. With only 123 congregations, the Waldensian Church is active in 98 social services. Out of their history as a persecuted minority, the church has developed a keen sense of caring for the disenfranchised and marginalized while seeking to educate the larger population and harmonize relationships between the two.

Italy's own developmental history plays a part as well. Until recently it was a country of emigration. Waves of hardship from the late 1800s and early 1900s forced many Italians to seek a better life in other countries. It wasn't until the late 1900s that the converse could be seen, as immigration into Italy began to take hold. Confronti's director Paolo Naso recalls meeting a Muslim in Italy for the first time in 1989. He cites the completion and opening of Italy's Grand Mosque (the largest in Europe) just six years later as a measure of the rapid growth of the Muslim population.

Confronti recognized vast changes in the world around us as a wake-up call to speak to the current issues of migration into Italy, its causes and affects. Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, immigrants to Europe were encouraged to come and fill the labor positions that many Europeans would not take. The foreigners were expected to work for a time and leave. When many started settling down, Europeans had to face the fact that these “guest workers” were no longer “born at 9:00 in the morning, and died at 6:00.” They were now people that Europeans met in other arenas besides work—at school, in social settings, and other walks of life.

The first immigration laws were legislated in 1990, as authorities began grappling with the fact that Italy is a peninsula and its borders are difficult to monitor. Its most pressing problem today centers around the humanitarian issue of migrant traffickers who bring boatloads of human cargo into Italian territorial waters and cut them loose in unseaworthy boats to drift the Mediterranean. Controversy rages over the issue of whether to send political asylum-seekers back to their home countries or place them in detention centers outside the cities or the European Union’s borders. These are especially difficult questions when they arrive in groups of over 1,000 people, which overwhelm authorities. Worse yet is the rising death toll of those in transit from Sudan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Palestine (5000 this year to date).

Italy's media admit that racism is a growing problem but argue that it is a problem shared by all of Europe, which fears a future "Eurabia." And yet who will be the voice for those unfortunate, who otherwise stand silent? For most of us it is unimaginable to think of never being able to return to the place we call home. Someone must respond to the growing conflict of opinion regarding who should be allowed in (many immigrants want to settle in other places, and Italy is just their point of entry), who should be given permission to stay (based on need or ability to contribute to the economy), and who should be forcibly returned (despite the dire circumstances from which they come).

We who are the church must wear many hats—for those who hunger and thirst, we must find food and drink, for those who are strangers, we must welcome them, for those who are naked, we must help them find clothes, for any sick or in prison, to visit them. Why Italy? Because when we meet the needs of the least of these, we do it also unto the Lord (Matthew 25: 35- 45).

Grace and Peace,

Terry and Michele

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 183