No Vat! Does the Pope Irritate You? Irritate the Pope!

The Catholic Church continues incessantly with its political goal of a return to the res publica sub Deo (“public affairs, under god”), or the domination of civil power by religious power. It is a policy that helps us to understand, in the clearest possible terms, the profoundly reactionary and conservative nature of the historical role of the Catholic Church, its institutional functions and its use as a tool for social control, within the general framework of a capitalist class society based on exploitation and inequality.

The demonstration to be held in Rome on 10^th February 2007 is the result of an urgent, pressing need that affects Italy today: the need to defend and free civil society from the policies of the Church, which today intervenes directly as a political force in conjunction with certain “secular forces” at the head of the governing coalition whose strategy is to foster religious divisions in the country, creating compact religious groups.

It is today’s response to the increasing secularization of “Western” societies in the name of “frontier Christianity” on a “mission” which unites right-wing forces with falsely democratic consciences.

When the political leadership of Catholics is taken over by a pope who is both able and willing to guide them in the direction of the creation of a “Christian State”, then we witness the radicalization of religious identity as a political identity, with serious consequences for secularism and citizens’ freedom of choice, individual or collective.

When the clergy expects to be allowed to return to a position of being able to decide the policies of a country and its people, then anti-clericalism must become a tool for free thought. When religious identity fits neatly with the political identity of the extreme right, then anti-fascism must become a way of life and of the struggle for freedom and self-management.

Anarchists and libertarians will support the movement to break down the wall![1]

[1] A reference to the name of the organizing coalition, “Facciamo Breccia!”, or “Break down the wall!”.

(Source: Retrieved on 29^th October 2021 from www.anarkismo.net.)