ITALY: Archbishop Says Proposed Hate Speech Law Harkens Back To Fascism

According to Archbishop Luigi Negri, Italy's proposed anti-homophobia hate speech law will drag his nation back to the days of Mussolini. 

The archbishop warned that the bill which proposes to criminalize "homophobia," will introduce "for the first time since the end of fascism 70 years ago, a crime of opinion that evokes the dark and troubled times, long subdued and always believed to be over, of state ideologies. "Times in which the State identified ideological positions which it forcibly imposed, and suppressed all those which did not match," he added. "In defending a certain lifestyle and its supporters, but especially those who theoretically profess homosexuality and practice it in society, the state discriminates in a serious and irreparable manner against other opinions and lifestyles," said the archbishop. "Our people risk losing the fundamental freedom of expression, freedom of choices, options, views and conceptions of life that make up the core of the experience of the people," Negri told the weekly magazine Tempi.

Negri claims that merely quoting from the Bible will result in priests and bishops being "dragged before the authorities."