With many Italian Catholics expressing support for a legislative proposal that would grant civil-union recognition to same-sex couples, the Vatican newspaper has defended the right of Church leaders to speak out on the issue.L’Osservatore Romano decried the calls from liberal Catholics for an end to public pronouncements from the Italian bishops’ conference. The proposed legislation has a clear impact on public morality, the Vatican newspaper reasoned.
“Maybe it is necessary to recall that the things of God and the things of man coincide more often than we recognize,” L’Osservatore Romano added.
The newspaper’s response came after the daily La Repubblica published a survey showing that 67% of the country’s practicing Catholics supported the civil-union proposal. The newspaper found 80% support for the legislation among the general population.
La Repubblica called attention to the support expressed by former Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, a devout Catholic, who said that overt intervention by the bishops threatened the freedom of Catholic members of parliament.
In Bologna, a group of prominent Catholics issued a public manifesto, calling upon the bishops to refrain from further comment on the civil-union legislation.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce