Italian Bishops Conference
(CEI) chief Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti said, without naming it,
that a ius soli law granting citizenship to immigrants' children
would boost the integration of migrants.
"I think that the construction of this process of integration
may pass through the recognition of a new citizenship, favouring
the promotion of the human person and the participation in
public life of those men and women who have been born in Italy,
who speak our language and assume our historical memory, with
the values that brings", he said.
Bassetti said on the migrant crisis that the rights of "those
who arrive, and of those who receive" must be respected.
The ius soli law, which would grant citizenship to immigrant
children who have spent at least five years in the Italian
school system, has been held up in the Senate by opposition from
rightwing and centre-right parties including the junior
government partner, the centre-right Popular Area (AP).
Premier Paolo Gentiloni has vowed to pass it before the end
of the legislative term next spring.
Speaking in his first opening address to the CEI's permanent
council, Bassetti also turned his attention to Italy's
persistent unemployment woes despite a burgeoning economic
recovery.
He said that "today work is without doubt the most important
priority for the country and youth unemployment is the great
emergency.
"Despite there being small signs of recovery for the economy
in Italy, I cannot but be concerned by the 8 million poor
described by ISTAT, half of whom have nothing to live on.
"They are young people, they are women, they are couples and
they are 50-year-olds who have lost their jobs and have been
cast aside by the economic system".
The CEI head said poverty was "still today a scandal to be
hidden" and said Italy must be united by "patching up the social
fabric".
Bassetti called on the Italian government to draw up
"innovative policies" to help families through fiscal measures.
He said that these measures are "the right thing to do and
urgent. This can no longer be put off and must be applied to all
families, especially large ones".
Bassetti said that this "would have beneficial effects on
family income" and positive ones on birthrates as well.
Bassetti also said that "I would like to express the most
sincere closeness to all those women who in Italy, almost daily,
are victims of a blind and brutal violence".
He added that he was thinking of the people hit by floods and
quakes around Italy and in Mexico.
Bassetti also urged the faithful to "implement the spirit" of
Pope Francis's exhortation on family love 'Amoris Laetitia',
(The Joy of Love).
Bassetti made the comment in speaking about "pastoral" duties
concerning families.
The exhortation has been challenged in recent days by a group
of Catholic traditionalists who have accused Francis of heresy
on several points including the possibility of divorced and
remarried Catholics having Communion.
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