Rome Demands Registration of Masons Working For City

From today's Il Messaggero in Italy (mostly translated by Google's translation robot):

Registration of Elected Officials Comes to Rome: The Freemasons Will "Unveil"

Rome (December 11) - In Rome, there will be established the public registration of elected officials: advisors and assessors or persons named in municipal boards will have to declare membership of associations and organizations, including the Masonic ones. [There was a] violent reaction from the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, Gustavo Raffi (right), who spoke of profiling. The approved text was amended by the center-right majority.

"The Nazis and the Stalinists did this," said Raffi, declaring "the most extensive protection in all locations." Commenting on statements made yesterday by Mayor Gianni Alemanno, that "the appointed and elected officials cannot belong to secret societies, whether Masonic or not," he remarked [that they] "smell of sulfur and echo, we would like to believe out of ignorance (in the Latin sense of the term), the ominous allegations of conspiracy theory, about Satanists, plutocrats, Jews, Freemasons, of sad and sickening memory." He repeated that "the Masonry of the Grand Orient of Italy of the Palazzo Giustiniani is not a secret society but operates in the sunshine."

Alemanno: no aversion to the Freemasons. "I do not have any dislike of Freemasonry," said Mayor Gianni Alemanno. "Soon I will invite Grand Master Raffi to Capitol Hill to clarify any misunderstanding and to find a solution that ensures full transparency of elected officials [that does not] discriminate or offend any sensitivities and any culture."

In particular, six of the seven amendments have been approved: those of the majority, the first signers Federico Mollicone and Andrea De Priamo, extended the registration in addition to those appointed to positions within the City and cultural institutions as well as [firms?] participating in the Municipality of Rome. Further, under another amendment, elected and appointed officials must declare their membership in "cultural and sports associations, charities, non-profit organizations, co-ops, Masonic organizations, foundations and any other form of public or private organization not covered by privacy [laws]."

[snip]

The first signatories Mollicone and De Priam said they were "willing to meet all associations, including the Grand Oriente, requesting them to explain that this obligation is exclusively cognitive." "We are pleased with the approval of the resolution - said the leader of the Pd Umberto Brown - because transparency is the cornerstone of participatory democracy and is the basis of a process aimed at increasing the involvement of citizens in political and institutions. The leader of the PDL Dario Rossin said that "the extension of the registry administrators, and also to be appointed is a choice that goes into the sign of a total administrative clarity to the citizens."

So, as the European Union's Human Rights court previously rejected registration of Freemasons in Italy as being discriminatory, the city of Rome circumvents the law by demanding registration of all "cultural and sports associations, charities, non-profit organizations, co-ops, Masonic organizations, foundations and any other form of public or private organization not covered by privacy [laws]."

See CHAMBER JUDGMENT, GRANDE ORIENTE D`ITALIA DI PALAZZO GIUSTINIANI v. ITALY (No. 2) from 1/6/2007