- guardian.co.uk, Monday December 18 2000 02.04 GMT
The papal staff was left to ponder the effect of the visit on the church's reputation.
A war of words between the visitor and Italy's leaders, and an anti-Haider protest outside the Vatican by several hundred leftwing demonstrators, reinforced immigration and national unity as issues in the run-up to the elections expected in the spring.
On Saturday Mr Haider presented the Pope with an 24-metre fir tree from the Austrian province of Carinthia, of which he is governor. Near St Peter's Square 500 protesters threw cobblestones and tried to disrupt the ceremony. the police fired teargas at them before charging with batons. Thirty people were injured.
Visibly relishing the attention, the guiding spirit of Austria's Freedom party stoked the furore with provocative statements about Jews and opponents during walkabouts in Rome which brought streets around him to a standstill.
He said Italy was soft on immigration and he attacked the prime minister, Giuliano Amato, and President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as weak men with weak, leftwing views.
He said: "I want to advise them to calm down, because I speak the truth: everyone knows that in Italy there is a growing problem of immigration and, at this moment, a very nervous climate over the next election.
"I repeat what I believe: everyone has a right to a dignified existence, but in their own country. Ever more people are thinking like I do."
Opinion polls suggest that the centre-right opposition led by Silvio Berlusconi will win the election on a platform of increasing devolution and curbing immigration.
An attempt by the opposition and the centre-left government to present a united front on the Haider visit crumbled into recrimination.
"The only one to have extracted advantage from the events of the Christmas tree in St Peter's Square appears to have been Haider," the Milan daily Corriere della Sera said. "It was manna for him."
Elements of Umberto Bossi's Northern League - which wants autonomy from Rome - are attracted by Mr Haider's suggestion of forming a region of Carinthia and bordering Italian areas.
Mr Haider, who says he has started learning Italian, has made so many forays across the Alps to build alliances with mayors that Italy's government formally asked the Austrian chancellor to stop him.
• Prosecutors say they will seek a three-year prison sentence on Cardinal Michele Giordano on charges of stealing church funds and loan-sharking. The archbishop of Naples, who protests his innocence, is the most senior cleric to be tried on criminal charges in Italy. A verdict in the six-month trial is expected on Friday.
