According to reports from Italy Pope Francis will not meet with Lega (League) Party leader and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini.
Salvini is a devout Catholic who regularly attends mass but Pope Francis allegedly won’t meet with him because of his hardliner stance on immigration.
Salvini wants to protect the homeland from an invasion of third world and mostly Muslim illegal migrants.
Pope Francis has previously met with Fidel Castro, Evo Morales and far left pro-abortion socialist Michael Moore.
Via John Gizzi at Newsmax:
According to the Italian publications Il Giorno and Il Mio Giornale, Salvini has attempted to secure a papal audience and been rebuffed each time. Both sources reported Salvini had been told “a meeting could not occur if Salvini continues in his tough position regarding migrants.”
For his part, Salvini, 46, a practicing Catholic, insists he follows Church teaching and his policies are designed to support immigration for reasons of security and to stop trafficking and smuggling.
As examples that his policy on migrants is in accordance with his Church, Salvini and his supporters cite the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Paragraph 2241): “Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”
They also point out Francis’ viewpoint is not universal among Church leaders. Robert Cardinal Sarah of Guinea, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has said a nation has the right to differentiate between refugees and economic migrants.
