Christian Concern Italia

UK religious right group Christian Concern has published a short video interview with Giuliano Palma, who heads an affiliate group called Christian Concern Italia. Like Christian Concern’s CEO Andrea Minichiello Williams (previously blogged by me here), Palma is a lawyer with an interest in religious cases, and he came into contact with Williams while representing a client in Dover. In the interview, Palma discusses legal obstacles faced by Italian Protestants, such as problems getting authorizations for religious marriages, and he complains that the Pope’s recent prayer meeting with Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas also included the head of the Orthodox Church but not any Italian Protestant representatives.

Palma’s website shows that Christian Concern Italia was established in 2012, and there are some photos from a conference, although the speakers are unidentified. His firm, Palma & Parners, is based in Naples, but has a London address care of Camerons Solicitors of Wimpole Street; Camerons represents, on a pro bono basis, the Christian Legal Centre, which is Christian Concern’s legal arm, as well as Christian Concern itself. A lawyer based at Camerons, Paul Coleman, formerly advised Christian Concern before taking up a position as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (previously called the Alliance Defense Fund) at its office in Vienna. The ADF is a high-profile religious right group in the USA, which also has links with Christian Concern.