(ANSA) - Milan, December 8 - Remarks by a cabinet minister suggesting the Archbishop of Milan Dionigi Tettamanzi should show more support for Christian Italians and less for foreigners and Islam continued to draw comment on Tuesday.

Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano voiced implicit support for Tettamanzi after the attack by Legislative Simplification Minister Roberto Calderoli, who criticized the archbishop's condemnation of the eviction of 250 Roma gypsies from their camp. Both opposition and majority politicians also expressed concern over the remarks by the rightwing Northern League minister, which appeared in Monday's edition of national daily La Repubblica.

Visiting Milan on Tuesday, Bertone urged ''respect'' for Tettamanzi, who he said was a ''great pastor of the Church and its people''.

Napolitano, also in Milan for celebrations marking the feast day of the city's patron saint Ambrose, said the Church and its ministers had an absolute right to comment on social issues. ''The Church's commitment to social issues is essential to Italian society,'' he said.

Program Implementation Minister Gianfranco Rotondi, a member of a different government party to Calderoli, expressed similar views to the president. ''A secular state means giving the Church the right to have its say,'' said Rotondi of the People of Freedom party. Senator Roberto Di Giovan Paolo of the largest opposition group, the centre-left Democratic Party, criticized Calderoli's Northern League party more generally. ''The League claims to defend religious values but every day it attacks the Church's social doctrine,'' said Di Giovan Paolo, who chairs the Senate European Affairs Committee.

The Senate whip of the centrist Christian UDC party, Gianpiero D'Alia, said the ''Northern League's 'religious teaching' should be met with laughter and catcalls''.

The House whip of the small opposition Italy of Values party referred to a controversial proposal by the Northern League following a Swiss referendum outlawing the construction of new Muslim minarets.

''Am I mistaken or didn't the League suggest adding a crucifix to the Italian flag a few days ago?'' asked Massimo Donadi. ''This day-on/day-off Christianity merely demonstrates the League's lack of responsibility and dangerous efforts to play to the crowd''.

The row was sparked by an editorial that appeared in the Northern League daily La Padania on Sunday, which asked whether Tettamanzi was ''the bishop of Milan or the imam of Milan'', in reference to his past defence of Islam. Defending the editorial, which also criticized the archbishop's condemnation of the recent gypsy eviction, Calderoli said Tettamanzi should pay more attention to Christian problems. ''Why has he never spoken out in defence of the cross?'' asked Calderoli, referring to a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling ordering the removal of crucifixes from Italian classrooms. ''Why does he only defend the Roma? Denying that people of a certain ethnic background carry out certain types of activity is refusing to recognize reality''. Monday's attack was not Calderoli's first on Tettamanzi, whom he described as a ''secret communist'' a year ago after the archbishop asked that Muslims be given prayer spaces in Milan.

There have also been series of disagreements between the Catholic Church and the Northern League more generally in recent months, usually over the issue of immigration or Islam. In August, League leader Umberto Bossi said the Vatican should ''open its doors'' to illegal immigrants if it didn't like a controversial government 'push-back' policy, under which migrant boats intercepted at sea are forcibly escorted back to Libya.

In November, the League and the Church were at odds again, this time over the outcome of the Swiss minaret referendum, which the League greeted with delight and calls for a similar vote in Italy. The head of the Vatican's Council for Migrants, Monsignor Antonio Maria Veglio expressed ''deep concern'' at the League's response, while an annoyed editorial in Catholic daily Avvenire urged readers to give the proposal ''short thrift'' and accused the party of exploiting religion for its own purposes.