Steve Bannon may be on the way to getting his electoral Dream Team in Italy, a coalition of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the anti-immigrant League. That is no cause for celebration among Catholic Church leaders, who are somberly facing up to the fact that the faithful have helped elect a governing coalition united by opposition to immigrants, whose welfare is one of Pope Francis\u2019s greatest concerns.<\/p>\n
Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant\u2019Egidio, was more blunt than most about it. \u201cIn addition to defeating the Democratic Party, I speak in some way of defeat of the church,\u201d he said in an interview with L\u2019Espresso. \u201cThere is a Catholic vote that went to the League or M5S,\u201d the acronym for the Five Star Movement. \u201cI do not say that they should be excommunicated, but the church’s message did not have relevance to them.\u201d The League, he added, \u201cwas more reassuring\u201d for these voters than the church was. (Polls showed that Catholics who go to Mass weekly voted in substantial numbers for the League or the Five Star Movement, but were less likely than the overall electorate to do so.)<\/p>\n