Giuliano Ferrara

From Philosopedia

Giuliano Ferrara (7 January 1952 - )

Ferrara, the son of Italian Senator Maurizio Ferra, is a journalist who in 1973 worked with Piero Fassino in the Italian Communist Party in Turin, later becoming the party's leader.

As an entertainer, Ferrara appeared in the choir of the first rock opera made in Italy, Tito Schipa Jr.'s Then An Alley that featured music by Bob Dylan.

In 1983, protesting a decision of the party not to dedicate a concert to the victims of the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, he left the party and began writing for The Espresso, becoming the leading vocal apostate of the party. He was elected a member of the European Parliament in 1989.

In 2007, Ferrara proposed a universal moratorium on abortion in Italy, a position backed by the Catholic Church, including Italian Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for Rome.

In 2008, called by Rachel Donadio a fringe candidate in Italy's national election, Ferrara was described as a "provocateur and cultural barometer," a person who is "almost certain" not to win but one whose rallies have drawn an outpouring of support and some protests.

Ferrara, in Donadio's story, "The Atheist Urging Italy to Get Religion," is described as a "talk-show host" who "combines the political theatrics of an Abbie Hoffman with the rhetorical flair of a William F. Buckley." In April 2008, running for Parliament on a slate devoted primarily to a single issue, "pro-life," Ferrara has been asked if he is inching toward the Church, which he denies:

• I'm not asking for their support, not in any way. Of course it's also true that I don't have it.

In a surreal campaign that Donadio describes as seeming to be "a cry for life in a country steeped in death and decline," Ferrara - during a health inspection that found an illegal, late-term abortion had been performed on a fetus with Klinefelter's Syndrome, whose symptoms include small testicles and large breasts - exclaimed that that was no reason to abort:

• He said he, too, might have the syndrome - and anyone who doubted him could take a look.

To which Donadio added, "But Mr. Ferrara is an unlikely pro-life crusader; he has acknowledged that in his early 20s, three of his partners had abortions."

Although some leading Catholic publications criticize his campaign, taking the position that matters of faith should remain private, Ferrara has been widely photographed as Pope Benedict XVI shook his hand. "I'm not a converted Catholic," Ferrara insisted to the press. "I'm still a nonbeliever, even though my idea of reason is the idea of a reason which is open to mystery."