By Mercedes de la Torre
ROME, JAN. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Those who protested Benedict XVI's scheduled visit to La Sapienza University in Rome have committed an act of intolerance, says an Italian journalist.
Giuliano Ferrara, director of the daily newspaper "Il Foglio," told ZENIT that "no one can be denied the right to speech and above all […] a Pope, a theologian, a great intellectual of the 20th century."
Ferrara, who organized a vigil Wednesday night in Rome to support the Pontiff, added that Benedict XVI "has been given to us in these time to help us to reason."
"In a university like La Sapienza," the journalist pointed out, "he should have been able to serenely fulfill his vocation, leaving his mark, although he will leave it, since the speech, because of this type of intolerance, which was rejected by the Roman university, will have a worldwide resonance."
Eugenia Roccella, journalist and writer, told ZENIT her presence at the event was "a gesture of solidarity with the Holy Father."
"The Pope has gone to all parts of the world, and only in a university in Italy, he cannot speak," she said.
"It is a scandal that in a cultural institution," added Roccella, "which should educate young people in values of true secularism, tolerance, democracy and reciprocal respect, something like this happens."
