The Vatican today distanced itself from a series of blistering attacks on the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi by the mass-circulation Roman Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana, which in its latest issue gives warning that Italy is in danger of returning to Fascism.

The magazine, owned by the Paulist Fathers, has repeatedly attacked the Berlusconi Government since it came to power in May on a law-and-order platform, arguing that the Right's targeting of immigrants and Gypsies as part of a crackdown on crime is racist and xenophobic. In June it compared the Government's "security decree" to the racial laws imposed by Benito Mussolini, Italy's Fascist dictator, in the 1930s.

In its latest editorial it says: "We hope that the suspicion that Fascism is being reborn in a different form proves to be untrue." Drawing on an analysis in the French Catholic publication Esprit, it compared the fingerprinting of Roma children in Italian Gypsy camps to the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis before and during the Second World War.

Government ministers rounded in fury on Famiglia Cristiana, with one saying that the magazine was itself displaying a Fascist mentality by making intemperate attacks on a democratically elected government.

The row today reached the point where the Vatican felt obliged to step in, with Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, declaring that although Famiglia Cristiana was an important Catholic publication, its views did not reflect those of either the Holy See or the Italian Bishops Conference.

"The positions it takes are exclusively the responsibility of its editors," Father Lombardi said. The Berlusconi administration — the third formed by Mr Berlusconi since he entered politics in 1994 — prides itself on its close links to the Vatican and the Catholic Church. The coalition does not however include the main Catholic political party, the Union of Christian Democrats headed by Pierferdinando Casini, who has fallen out with Mr Berlusconi.

Sandro Bondi, the Culture Minister, alleged that Famiglia Cristiana was a "Catholic-Communist" publication driven by a "visceral hatred" for Mr Berlusconi. Last week the magazine criticised the deployment of troops in Italian cities alongside police, accused the Government of ''uselessly playing soldiers to combat false security problems. It added: "Not even in Angola do they do this."

Antonio Sciortino, the editor of Famiglia Cristiana, said that he was "amazed" at the reaction. "We have no prejudice against the Berlusconi Government — we took the same line during the previous centre-left government of Romano Prodi," he said. "It is the right of citizens to judge the government, any government, in a free debate".

Carlo Mosca, the Rome chief of police, today came under fire from Roma groups and human rights organisations for suggesting in an interview with the Milan financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore that Gypsy children should make a living shining shoes outside supermarkets instead of begging or stealing. Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, has been similarly criticised for proposing that people caught scavenging through rubbish bins should be punished.

The Berlusconi Government has however completed its first 100 days with high approval ratings in opinion polls, with Mr Berlusconi widely credited with maintaining his election vows to clear rubbish from the centre of Naples (though not the suburbs) and impose "law and order" in Italy as a whole.

Supporters of Mr Berlusconi this week hailed an article in the US magazine Newsweek headed "Miracle in 100 days" as proof that he was on the right track. The article, written by Jacopo Barigazzi, described "how Berlusconi brought order to chaotic Italy". Osvaldo Napoli, a spokesman for the centre Right deputies in Parliament, said that it was "a pity you won't see any similar editorials in any Italian newspaper".

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