Should Rome's Sapienza University welcome the Pope?

In the name of secularism, several dozens of Teachers at the University of Sapienza in Rome have called for a protest against the visit of Pope Benedict XVI on January 17th. The Holy Father traditionally participates in the opening ceremony of the academic year. In an interview with Orazio La Rocca, the writer Dario Fo explains why he is not necessarily on the side of the teachers. "I am opposed to all forms of censorship because the right to speech is sacred. But this should be a reciprocal right. It doesn't seem to me that the Church and the Pope have been exemplary in matters of freedom of expression. This is why the invitation that the University of La Sapiencza addressed to Benedict XVI leaves me somewhat perplexed. It seems to me that before sending out invitations, a more attentive evaluation should have been made of this university, an institution universally recognised as a temple of secular culture and knowledge."

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