Vatican: Church defends rights of Gypsies

The Vatican's top official for migrants says the church's defense of Gypsies expelled by France isn't meddling in politics.

Monsignor Agostino Marchetto told a French religious news agency the church is "neither on the right nor on the left nor on the center" but simply showing pastoral concern for people.

I.MEDIA quoted Marchetto as saying the church wouldn't wade into politics while deploring the crackdown on Gypsies by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.

Western Europe has struggled for decades over how to treat Gypsies living in squalid encampments.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said the death of a Gypsy child in a fire early Friday in a camp on the outskirts compels the city to continue its policy of demolishing the ramshackle settlements.

SIC: AP