Police raid ends Italy’s migrant parish; defiant priest vows he won’t surrender
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – On July 1, police in full riot gear stormed the rectory of Santa Maria Maggiore parish in the Tuscan town of Vicofaro, clearing out the last dozen migrants sheltered there by Don Massimo Biancalani.
The operation, authorized by Bishop Fausto Tardelli after years of tensions with residents and right-wing politicians, turned dramatic: The indignant priest hurled two baguettes at officers while shouting “vergogna!” (“shame on you”) and tried to shield migrants — some led out in shackles. Later, megaphone in hand, he recited the Hail Mary as police sealed the parish doors.
“I experienced that epilogue as something dramatic, that I did not accept,” Biancalani told Religion News Service.
Public safety officials told local media that Biancalani’s ejection from his parish “was not an indiscriminate eviction, but the conclusion of a relocation process that was already completed,” said Licia Donatella Messina, the prefect for the province of Pistoia, which includes Vicofaro, northwest of Florence.
Biancalani said that roughly 120 migrants had been relocated to diocesan structures. “Many were moved to diocesan or Caritas structures. But the most fragile refused facilities with surveillance, and many others didn’t have the right papers. Caritas only wants them when they are ‘all in order,’” said Mauro Matteucci, a volunteer at the parish who taught Italian to more than 350 migrants welcomed at Vicofaro over a decade.
“We weren’t opposed to a relocation,” Matteucci said, admitting that there were “many critical issues,” including limited bathrooms and facilities for the growing number of migrants.
Don Massimo Biancalani in a recent television interview. (Video screen grab)
But despite such shortcomings, Biancalani claimed that his parish was exactly the kind of spiritual “field hospital” that Pope Francis said churches should be. But for the Diocese of Pistoia, the parish had become a liability. The clash underlined the complex tension between a church called to welcome the stranger and a political landscape pressing for stricter regulation and enforcement of immigration.
After Francis’ 2016 appeal that priests and nuns “open the doors” to migrants, Biancalani decided to take action in what he described as a “radical, evangelical experience.” With the help of volunteers, he offered food, legal assistance and Italian lessons to anyone who came knocking on the parish door. He would say Mass while migrants slept in the pews, a decision that was criticized by his bishop.
“If I have a second family, it is the family of Vicofaro. They always loved me and helped me learn the language and do things. I cannot forget them,” said Adef Ahamat, one of the first migrants welcomed by Biancalani. Ahamat has since returned to Cameroon to tend to his sick father.
More than 700 migrants have made their home within the parish’s walls in the past decade, according to Biancalani. Most came from West Africa, arriving in Italy via the treacherous Central Mediterranean route through Egypt and Tunisia. Biancalani said jokingly that his was “the most Muslim parish in the world.”
As Biancalani’s project drew media attention, right-wing politicians condemned his efforts. In 2019, far-right politician Matteo Salvini criticized him as a “priest who surrounds himself with illegal migrants.” Locals said brawls that have broken out at the church and general disorder around the parish made them feel unsafe.
In 2023 and 2024, several migrants were arrested on charges of rape, drug dealing and armed robbery, making national headlines. The far-right party CasaPound organized protests at the parish, and Vicofaro residents organized committees condemning Biancalani’s open-door approach.
Santa Maria Maggiore parish in Vicofaro, Pistoria, Italy. (Image courtesy of Google Maps)
Despite the pushback and the lack of facilities, Biancalani continued to welcome migrants and refugees. “No one ever really helped us, neither the state nor the church. We were alone, managing enormous and difficult situations,” Biancalani said.
The Diocese of Pistoia did not respond to Religion News Service’s requests for comment.
“It’s hard when people come from different cultures. Everyone has their own story, and jealousy happens. But when Don Massimo heard of problems, he called people into his office and it was resolved,” Ahamat said.
When a knife fight broke out between two migrants in January, government authorities decided to take action. Italy’s Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi and the mayor of Pistoia, Alessandro Tomasi, held an online conference with representatives of Caritas, the Catholic Church’s humanitarian agency, and regional officials on Feb. 28 and decided “to begin the decongestion” of the migrants in Vicofaro. Policemen were stationed at the church and 40 migrants were relocated to other centers in Tuscany.
In late June, the diocese issued a statement saying it would support the relocation process. “At Vicofaro, the sanitary conditions no longer allow for a dignified, humane and safe form of hospitality,” said the diocese. “The majority of them have already, voluntarily, agreed to these transfers, which will be carried out in freedom and serenity.”
A small number of migrants refused to be relocated, leading to what Biancalani and Matteucci referred to as “Operation July 1st.” Those who remained were either undocumented or struggling with addiction and psychiatric disorders, “the ones nobody wants,” according to the priest.
Police remove migrants from the Santa Maria Maggiore parish rectory on July 1, 2025, in Vicofaro, Pistoria, Italy. (Photo courtesy of Don Massimo Biancalani)
“Pope Francis had opened all the doors. With Leo there is a different sensibility — he is not Francis — and some took advantage of it to shut down this experience,” Biancalani said.
The bishop of Pistoia has offered the priest a new pastoral assignment, but Biancalani said he declined as he looks for guidance from sanctuary churches in the United States that welcomed migrants despite government opposition. “I don’t want to surrender, and if there are canonical tools to defend hospitality, I will use them,” said the priest.
The experiment in Vicofaro has become a lightning rod for clashes between the church and the state in Italy over immigration and a telling epilogue of Francis’ papacy and pro-immigration rhetoric. For Biancalani, the church needs to practice what it preaches.
“If the church truly believes in the gospel of hospitality, it must also foresee canonical forms of protection for those who put it into practice,” he said.
Migrants receive Italian language lessons at Santa Maria Maggiore parish in Vicofaro, Pistoria, Italy. (Photo courtesy of Don Massimo Biancalani)