Vatican supports new Romanian Orthodox diocese in Italy

Vineri, 30 noiembrie 2007, 14:35 English | Regional Europe

His Eminence Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, bishop of Terni and president of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue within the Italian Episcopal Conference, explained in an interview for HotNews.ro the position Vatican has on the new Romanian Orthodox diocese, opened in Italy, calling it a wonderful initiative. At the moment, the Roman - Catholic church offers Romanians in Italy quite an important number of churches for holding their sermons.

Mons. Vincenzo Paglia believes it is a sign of generosity "towards you, our dear friends from the Orthodoxy". The Monsignor also discussed the problem of Romanian immigrants with the Italian Interior Minister Amato, counseling him to invest more in the immigrants' integration than in security. According to the interview, the Bishop doesn't think that Italians should be as concerned about Romanians themselves as they should be about their integration.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church have an agreement for friendship and ecumenical fraternity, Paglia says, but when it comes to matters of state, juridical rules and procedures must be respected.

According to the 2007 Caritas Migrantes statistics, out of 3.7 million immigrants in Italy, 50% are Christian and one third are Muslim.