MILAN, Italy (AP) -- A leading Italian cardinal has condemned Halloween, calling the holiday an unwanted foreign import and urging children to turn their minds to eternity instead by honoring the dead this week.
"Halloween is a type of holiday that is foreign to our traditions, which have tremendous value and must endure," Milan Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini wrote in a catechism tract handed out to young people Monday.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Nov. 1 is All Saints' Day and Nov. 2 is All Souls' Day. Many Italian Catholics decorate the graves of their relatives on Nov. 1, which is a day off for many, and Martini urged youngsters to observe that tradition.
Honoring the dead "is a part of our history," Martini wrote. "It is the moment which opens the hope of eternity -- the moment when the Lord makes us understand that life is more than that of earth."
Halloween trick or treating is an American import that has caught on in Italy, to the delight of some and the dismay of others.
On Saturday, children dressed as witches, vampires, and mummies walked Rome's streets, and bars and discos in many cities plan costume parties Tuesday night.
