Pope Ratzinger spent most of last week hysterically berating the Italian government for bringing forward a new partnership law that gives legal rights to unmarried cohabiting heterosexual couples and to homosexual couples.Italy’s most senior cardinal, Camillo Ruini, then announced that he would issue an ‘official note’ to Catholics, asking them to make “a personal commitment to defend marriage and oppose de facto couples”. That was seen as a direct call on Catholic lawmakers to vote against the bill.
But a new poll shows that the Vatican is out of step with public opinion in Italy. The survey for the newspaper La Repubblica found that 67% of practising Catholics support protections for heterosexual co-habitees, a number which falls to 35% who think gay and lesbians should get legal protection. Overall, 80% of Italians are in favour.
Couples will be able to formally register with their local authority, and will have rights over property and inheritance. They will also have the right to visit their partner in hospital.
The poll results are an enormous blow to the Vatican, whose heavy-handed tactics have backfired once again.
Even the former Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, 88, who attends church on a daily basis, told the press that the Church should not interfere in the political process. “Should such an intervention take place ... it would destroy the freedom and dignity of Catholic lawmakers in parliament,” he told La Repubblica.
“A rigid attitude by the Church would be really damaging.”
Despite the national enthusiasm for the new law, it is expected to have a rough ride when it comes before parliament, and the Vatican is expected to intensify its anti-democratic campaign of pressure on politicians.
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