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letter from Italy

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Nov 2022

The victory of a nationalist coalition headed by Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female Prime Minister, chimes with concerns also visible elsewhere in Europe, such as Hungary, Poland and Sweden.

The global crisis, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, increased energy prices and migrations arouse anxieties that the right seem better able to interpret.

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Oct 2018

After Dublin, where does Rome stand on the family?

Not one but two World Meetings of Families took place in Dublin from 22 to 26 August. One was the official event that ran according to the planned programme centred on religious and cultural activities; the other was dictated by the vast echo of the scandals related to sexual abuses committed by Catholic priests and the unexpected controversy caused by former nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò, who accused vast sectors of the Roman Curia of covering them up, and invoking Francis’ resignation due to his inability to properly deal with the abuses. It is fair to say that the second meeting caught the attention of the public opinion much more than the first.

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Aug 2017

The first building since 1925 has been purchased by an evangelical church in central Rome (half a mile from the Coliseum) to be a space for public worship.

The first hub for gospel work in decades has been launched to foster evangelical collaboration in the city and the first Protestant library to be opened in Rome since 1870 will encourage training and scholarship.

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Aug 2015

One million people rallied in Rome on 20 June under the banner ‘Let’s defend our children’.

The rally was organised to express concerns over different Bills that the Italian Parliament is discussing on civil unions and gender theory being taught in state schools. There is a growing pressure to introduce legislation that will eventually redefine marriage away from the traditional understanding, open adoptions to individual parents, and impose gender teaching as the only acceptable ‘single thought’. In the background there is also another Bill against homophobia that will potentially threaten freedom of speech.

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Oct 2013

The 2013 Giornate Teologiche was held at IFED in Padova (Padua) on September 6-7.

There was a time when the word ‘evangelism’ was spoken by evangelicals alone and its meaning was defined, i.e. the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost world. These days are gone. Nowadays Roman Catholics are talking about the ‘new’ evangelisation and its meaning has become blurred. Moreover, evangelicals seem to put less emphasis on the verbal communication of the gospel, preferring ‘different’ methods of evangelisation. This generation, therefore, has the responsibility to clarify afresh what evangelism is and how to do it.

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Sep 2014

Nearly 100% of Italian evangelical churches and bodies (85% of Italian Protestants) on July 19 signed a common statement reinforcing evangelical commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as providing biblical standards to assess the mounting ecumenical pressure coming from the Roman Catholic Church.

Following a round table on ‘An evangelical perspective on Roman Catholicism’, promoted by the Italian Evangelical Alliance and held in Aversa on July 19, the Federation of Pentecostal Churches, the Assemblies of God in Italy, the Apostolic Church and the Pentecostal Congregations, concerned by recent ecumenical initiatives between national and international evangelical and Pentecostal circles and the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope, believe that a church which operates as mediator of salvation and presents other figures as mediators of grace is incompatible with the teaching of Scripture, since God’s grace comes to us by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2.8) and without the agency of other mediators (1 Timothy 2.5).

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Aug 2014

Since 2011 onwards in Lombardia, some 16 places of worship of various Evangelical groups have been closed.

Most of these buildings were used by migrant churches which ordinarily find it more difficult to find legal protection and are often hesitant to be outspoken about their problems. In 2005 a regional law was passed that allowed the local police to check whether or not these buildings were registered as places of worship. Its motivation was to control the presence of Muslim places for prayer but it was also a form of hostility towards foreigners.

Leonardo de Chirico

Date posted: 1 Oct 2013

After the recent outbreak of violence against the Christians in Egypt in August, the Italian Evangelical Alliance organised a prayer rally in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Rome.

On August 24, dozens of people representing several evangelical churches in Rome gathered to pray for peace in the country and for protection for the Christian minority. Recent reports from Egypt were read, together with biblical passages assuring that God is in control and cares for his people. A letter to the Ambassador was signed by the participants expressing concern for the dangerous situation in which the Christians find themselves and the hope that action will be taken to secure protection and religious freedom for all.