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Catholic World News News Feature

Italian pro-life campaigners face heckling, abuse April 03, 2008

An Italian pro-life politician was pelted with eggs and bottles during an April 2 campaign appearance in Bologna, the Italian daily Il Giornale reports.

Giuliano Ferrara, the leader of a popular movement for a moratorium on abortion, was making an appearance along with parliamentary candidates for the Emilio-Romagna region when the disturbance occurred. About 100 protestors, representing Communist and Green party sympathizers, hooted at the pro-life candidates, calling them "buffoons" and "fascists," as objects were hurled from the crowd. Ferrara shouted back at the hecklers: "This is not democracy!"

At least 15 people in the crowd were injured during the melee. Among those requiring medical treatment were a reporter for the Repubblica newspaper and several local police officers.

After the confrontation, Bologna’s mayor Sergio Cofferati commented: “What occurred in Bologna damaged the city’s image and its history of democracy and tolerance." Cofferati, himself a Communist, said: "Everyone should be able to speak his mind in public and no one should impede his speech.”