Ascoli Piceno venue dispute stalls annual Pastasciutta Antifascista event

The traditional “Pastasciutta Antifascista” celebration scheduled for 26 July in Ascoli Piceno lost its original venue after the parish of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary withdrew permission. Organisers – the provincial ANPI committee, the Collettivo Caciara and the bakery L’Assalto ai Forni – say the decision was prompted by objections to the word “antifascista”, which some parishioners deemed “divisive” and “political”.

The parish priest, a Kenyan‑born friar, reportedly interpreted the event as a partisan gathering and asked the organisers to remove the term from promotional material. Bishop Gianpiero Palmieri described the episode as a “simple misunderstanding” rather than an ideological clash, noting that the event was originally presented as a charitable dinner.

ANPI denounced the revocation as a threat to the constitutional values of antifascism, calling it “a worrying signal for the architecture of democratic values in the country”. The organisers are seeking an alternative location to hold the ceremony, which commemorates the 1943 gesture of the Cervi family who distributed pasta to celebrate the fall of fascism. The controversy has sparked a broader public debate on the use of religious spaces for civic memory events.