An Italian Catholic magazine has likened Italy's far-Right interior minister Matteo Salvini to Satan after his pledges to halt migrant arrivals to the country and promises to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants.

It came as a close adviser to Pope Francis criticised legislation proposed by Mr Salvini's anti-migrant League party to require ports and other public institutions to display a crucifix, saying that the religious symbol isn't "a team emblem" to be shown for political ends.

"If you remove the (religious) symbolism from the crucifix ... it becomes a parody," the Rev Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica, said during a Rome conference on the pope.

A tweet Spardaro posted earlier in the day with a blunt "Hands off!" went viral. The crucifix, he wrote, "screams love to the enemy and unconditional welcome."

"Vade Retro Salvini," (Go back, Salvini) read the headline in the Famiglia Cristiana magazine, in a play on the Medieval Catholic phrase used to repel evil "Vade Retro Satana" (Go back Satan).