Rome (NEV), February 7, 2017 – In congratulating the Minister of Internal Affairs Marco Minniti on the recent signature of the “National Covenant for an Italian Islam”, the President of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI), pastor Luca Maria Negro, in a letter sent yesterday, recalled how “Italian Protestants have been calling for years on a new law about religious freedom which, overcoming all the ancient fascist rules, might guarantee the principle of the State secularity and the rights foreseen by the Constitution to all religious communities”.
The signing of the innovative “Covenant” – which took place on February 1st at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the presence of representatives of the main Muslim organizations in Italy and of the coordinator of the Council for the relations with Islam, the Waldensian Paolo Naso – for the FCEI President this is “an important step towards the full recognition of a faith community which today holds a great importance from the social, cultural and religious point of view also in Italy. As part of the Italian Evangelism – adds Negro – we always welcome with great pleasure any initiative aimed at consolidating freedom and religious pluralism, which are essential and distinctive elements of every democracy”.
The letter ends with the hope that a political process will soon be started to reach “the approval of new standards for all religious confessions ‘other than the Catholic one’, in the frame of the Constitution and in the clear awareness of the cultural and civil value of religious pluralism”.
