Genoa's unlikely protesters

Militants will not be the only summit opponents in town

By Frances Kennedy in Genoa

Don Andrea Gallo should be easy to pick out in the crowds of anti-globalisation protesters who will seek to disrupt the upcoming G8 summit in the northern Italian port of Genoa.

This is not a rebellion - this is a mass awakening

Don Andrea Gallo, Catholic priest

The elderly Catholic priest will be wearing his clerical collar, black trousers and a red scarf - and most probably will have a large cigar in his lips.

"Think what a joy it is for me, an old partisan, to see 800 groups adhering to the Genoa Social Forum," he says, pointing angrily to the police barricades erected outside his church, which is in the high-security "red zone" of Genoa.

"It is a whole galaxy of organisations. This is not a rebellion - this is a mass awakening," he says.

Don Gallo is just one of the clerics who will be mixing with anarchists, environmentalists and left-wing militants who will try to halt the summit.

Genoa's archbishop has admitted unease over aspects of summit

Father Vitaliano della Sala from Avellino hopes to travel up on a specially-chartered boat of protesters from southern Italy. Sister Patrizia Pasini, who has spent many years as a missionary in Kenya, will be staging a fast during the 20-22 July summit.

The condemnation of poverty and social injustice is a recurrent theme of the Catholic Church, but the groundswell of support around the anti-globalisation cause is something new.

The Genoa Social Forum, an umbrella group that wants the world leaders to act on debt relief, the Kyoto protocol and the battle against Aids, includes missionary orders, charities and secular volunteer groups.

I thought I was blessing luxury... and I suffered thinking of all the poor people in the world

Archbishop who blessed summit cruise ship

"The richest, most technologically-advanced nations must learn to listen to the cries of all the poor countries in the world who are only asking for what is their God-given right," said Pope John Paul II recently.

The pontiff used his private audience with new Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi to urge him to press ahead with measures to reduce Third World debt - and to press G8 leaders to do likewise.

The archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, a possible papal successor, admitted that blessing the European Vision - the $400m superliner that will house the G8 heads of state, he felt ill at ease.

Genoa travel agencies are offering special holidays to get residents out

"I thought I was blessing luxury... and I suffered thinking of all the poor people in the world," he said.

While some church organisations will arrange marches, sit-ins and debates as part of the alternative summit, others will opt for a less visible form of protest. More than 250 church organisations will be meeting at the church of San Antonio at Boccadasse, in Genoa, to pray for peace, justice and solidarity.

Not everyone approves of the church aligning itself with radical protesters. Father Gianni Baget Bozzo, who was recently elected MP for Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, accused Cardinal Tettamanzi of "justifying public disorder".