Matteo Salvini, the leader of
Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party, said on Tuesday he
was "disgusted" by the Communist crucifix that Bolivia's
president gave as a gift to Pope Francis during his recent trip
to South America.
Bolivia's Evo Morales presented Francis with the crucifix
in the shape of a hammer and sickle when he arrived in La Paz on
Wednesday.
"I was left disgusted, because millions of people in the
world have died in the name of that hammer and sickle, in the
name of Communism," Salvini told Italian radio Rtl 102.5.
"Communism has committed more crimes in the world than
Nazism," said Salvini. "To see it combined with our Lord...it
really annoyed me," he said.
The crucifix was based on a design by a Marxist-minded
missionary tortured and murdered by Bolivian paramilitaries in
1980, Jesuit priest Father Luis Espinal.
Francis, who prayed at the site of Espinal's assassination
upon his arrival in Bolivia, said on the plane home Monday the
gift had not "offended" him - on the contrary, he was taking it
back to the Vatican with him.
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