Why Italy’s Bishops Are Worried

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN ITALY

IN November 1993, the Italian bishops’ conference made a number of negative comments about Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was alleged that they are not Christians and that their door-​to-​door preaching was “savage proselytism.”

However, not all religious authorities agree. For example, Attilio Agnoletto, professor of the history of Christianity at Milan State University, describes Jehovah’s Witnesses as “a strong, serious, Biblical, completely legitimate movement in which there is nothing unchristian.”

And what of their “savage proselytism”? “The term ‘savage’ is absolutely unacceptable,” professor Agnoletto told Awake! “That would mean that the proselytism of Jesus Christ was also ‘savage.’”

Why do the bishops harbor such prejudice against Jehovah’s Witnesses? Professor Agnoletto feels that their opposition “results from the very number and success of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Italy today,” which, he adds, “corresponds to a crisis of Catholic religiosity.”

The clergy today seek to discredit and obstruct those who obey Jesus’ command to preach. (Matthew 28:19, 20; compare Matthew 5:11, 12.) The newspaper La Stampa reports that despite the opposition, Jehovah’s Witnesses are the second-​largest denomination in Italy, now numbering over 200,000 and growing steadily.

In contrast, the Catholic Church has experienced waning attendance in recent years. So at the beginning of 1994, Pope John Paul II urged Italian Catholics to become active evangelizers, even preaching from door to door​—much the way Jehovah’s Witnesses do!a

[Footnotes]