Pope asks forgiveness of Pentecostals

(ANSA) - Caserta, July 28 - Pope Francis asked forgiveness Monday on behalf of all Catholics for the "persecution" of Pentecostals during remarks to an evangelical community in southern Italy. The pope said Catholics in the past were "tempted by the devil" when they contributed to the harsh treatment of Pentecostal members.
    "Among those who have persecuted and denounced the Pentecostals, almost as if they were crazy about ruining the race, there were also Catholics," Francis said during a meeting with evangelicals in Caserta, a city near Naples.
    "I am the shepherd of the Catholics, and I ask forgiveness for those Catholic brothers and sisters who did not understand and were tempted by the devil".
    During the Fascist period in Italy, in the 1920s and 1930s in particular, Pentecostal members were persecuted by authorities, with the Church's knowledge. Pentecostalism is a Protestant faith that emphasizes a direct, personal relationship with God which is different from the Catholic Church, which includes the pope, priests and the sacraments as also crucial to the relationship between God and individuals.
    Since his election almost 18 months ago, the pope has been making efforts to reach out to other faiths through meetings with leaders of Protestant groups, as well as senior Jewish and Muslim leaders. Francis landed by helicopter in Caserta, his second visit there in three days, and was scheduled to meet privately with an old friend, Italian Pentecostal pastor Giovanni Traettino, as well as a group of around 350 faithful. The pair first met in Buenos Aires when Francis was the archbishop of the Argentine capital, the Vatican said earlier this month.
    Traettino, who is married and has four children and two grandchildren, has been active in ecumenical circles for years and his church is called the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation.
    During his remarks, the pope emphasized the similarities between Catholics and Pentecostals, noting that both are Christian, and said that all should celebrate the diversity among faiths.
    Francis was also in Caserta on Saturday, where he repeated his message denouncing the mafia.
    In June Francis accused mafiosi of practising "the adoration of evil" during a visit to the southern region of Calabria where he excommunicated them.
    The province of Caserta is the base of the infamous Caselesi clam of Campania's Camorra mafia syndicate.
    Earlier this year the mayor of Caserta, Pio Del Gaudio, wrote to the pope about the so-called ecomafia, whose dumping and burning of toxic waste have led to parts of the surrounding province to be dubbed the "land of fires".
    Mafia infiltration of waste disposal has become a major environmental and health issue as hundreds of tonnes of waste - some of it dangerously contaminated - has been illegally dumped in what some have described as an ecological time bomb that will continue to poison the land for at least another 50 years.
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