Visitors to the church of St. Anthony in Ventimiglia, Italy, were recently told to “pray in silence” to avoid upsetting African migrants being housed in the building.
Members of Caritas, a Catholic charity that helps facilitate mass migration to Europe, have asked parishioners not to recite the rosary aloud, Italian wire service Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata reported Saturday. A priest eventually took women who complained to another place of worship, Breitbart News reported.
Italy, like other European nations, has struggled to absorb waves of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa due to Syria’s ongoing civil war and the collapse of Libya. The International Organization for Migration puts the number of migrants who arrived in Europe in 2016 at 206,000. Italy has reportedly taken in 48,000 thousand of those migrants.
Roughly 50 migrants cross into Ventimiglia, a town of 55,000, every day, Breitbart reported. The town’s mayor, Enrico Ioculano, has called the influx an “untenable situation.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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