On choosing friends
Terzuolo, Eric R.
thirty-three hundred obstetricians and gynecologists have, in accordance with a provision in the law, declared their conscientious objection to performing abortions. Pope Wojtyla, as he is...
...Among the MSI deputies is Pino Rauti, outspokenly committed to the use of political terrorism...
...Prevailing attitudes on such matters have changed little...
...ERIC R. TERZUOLO (Eric R. Terzuolo is an assistant professor in the De, partment of History and Political Science at Mount Saint Mary's College in Maryland, with a special interest in pcrst.World War H ltalfan .politics...
...As party leader, Almirante has shown little inclination to curb the radical element...
...The party is the object of intense opprobrium on the part of most Italians...
...After upbraiding the Italian Episcopal Conference and whipping it into line, the pontiff chose to take the stump himself...
...More recently, in 1973, an overwhelming majority of the Italian Chamber...
...T .HEPOUTICAL CULTURES of Mediterranean court...
...FoRanately for Secretary Haig, the Republican party had a representative in Rome, Mr...
...Perhaps he is in the wrong party, but I think he is a loyal person," said Mr...
...Almirante and the MSI cannot he separated...
...United States foreign policy would derive no substantive benefit from even only an implied relationship with the MSI...
...Robert Cunningham, to 9help screen those seeking contacts with the new administratiou in Washington...
...The MSI is among those who, in the words of noted writer Alberto Moravia, "'want a strong state, not a just state...
...Interviewed by the weekly L'Espresso, Mr, Cunning,ham indicated that the Reagan administ~tion planned to "iake...
...He made the serious and controversial decision to bypass the Christian Democratic party and take his case directly to Italian Catholics through such organizations as the Pro-Life Movement, Communion and Freedom, and the Focolarini...
...The Italian Social Movement has long nurtured substantial para-military organizations and a youthful activist II I I IIIII IIIII I Democratic party, but their embarrassing defeat over the antidivorce referendum in 1974, when they faithfully fought for the church's position, had cooled their enthusiasm for another moral crusade...
...Faced with such hesitations, Pope Wojtyla decided to take a more direct and personal approach to repealing the abortion law...
...Pope Wojtyla, as he is popularly called in Italy, went into action against the abortion law within two months of his election...
...Giorgio Almirante is a Fascist...
...The Vatican's usual way to indirectly influence Italian politics is through the members of the Christian ON, CHOOSING FRIENDS 9soWHO NEEDS ZNZ aZS...
...The party is small, k, ith less than five percent of the seats in the legislature...
...Admittedly, Almirante is not the most radical member of his party...
...Cunningham...
...But perhaps Mr...
...In 1960, popular demonstrations toppled a Christian Democratic government that relied on ricofascist support in the Chambei- of Deputies...
...Before I943, Almirante was a journalist, writing for a Fascist-sponsored, anti.Semitic 9 9 periodical...
...Apparently the bishops were also better attuned than Wojtyla to the intricacies of conducting such a campaign in a country that has a subtly balanced concordat with the Vatican...
...a tough stance with respect to its adversaries [in Italy] and br open to its friends...
...Those of us who find the ethical precepts of Fascism abhorrent have little need for the preceding argument...
...This elicits objections of both a pragmatic and an,ethical 9 nature...
...However, given the lackluster support of the bishops, a first effort at collecting the required five hundred thousand signatures for a referendum failed miserably in April, 1980...
...Between 1943 and the end of the war, he was an official of Mussolini's Salb Republic...
...II Commonweal: 358...
...It seems that 9the friends included, along with various Christian Democrats,' Social Democrats, and others, one Giorgio AImirante...
...ofDeputies voted to remove Almirante's parliamentary immunity, making him subject to prosecution for "reconstitution of the Fascist party...
...Cunningham's complacency toward ihe Fascist heritage and present, outlook of Almirante's MSI only reflects the Reagan administration's belief in the power of the neat distinction between "'authoritarian" forces and "totalitarian" ones...
...He is the leader of the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale !taiiano--MSI), an overtly neo-fascist politicalparty he helped found in 1946...
...His suggestion met with a lukewarm reception among many Italian bishops, who, fearing a defeat at the polls, did not want to risk splitting Italian Catholics on the issue...
...tries place a premium ~on personal relationships with those in power elsewhere, For this reason, early" this year Italian politicians were standing in line to make the acquaintance of the American secretary of state...
...expressions of sympathy, with A1mirante as expressions of sympathy with neo-fascism...
...It is significant, given American commercial interests in Italy, that MSI support within the business community is proportionately no greater...
...thirty-three hundred obstetricians and gynecologists have, in accordance with a provision in the law, declared their conscientious objection to performing abortions...
...Others, more impressed with history and less impressed with diplomatically convenient labels, will recall that it was precisely Mussolini's Fascism that proudly launched the deadly modem concept of the "total state...
...He strongly urged conscientious objection on the part of doctors, and early in 1979 he floated the idea of collecting signatures for an anti-abortion referendum...
...In the late wing whose acts of violence have claimed not a few lives...
...The Italian public will view U.S...
Vol. 108 • June 1981 • No. 12
