In the last few weeks an abyss has opened up between the Italian government, trying to harmonize its legal concept of the family with that of the rest of the E.U., and the government of the Roman Catholic Church (the Vatican), which ideologically has a very strong following among the general population.In many parts of the E.U. even those living together outside civil marriage enjoy many of the same rights as citizens as formally married couples, a concept far removed from the Catholic one of marriage as the basis of the family and of the rearing of children.
The legislative project of the Italian government to confer economic and legal support for the unmarried who live together in a same-sex relationship is a bill named DICO (Rights for Cohabiting Couples) as with the French PACS (Civil Solidarity Pacts).
The intent of the DICO bill, in the version supported by the Radical Party, is to grant unmarried and gay couples rights comparable to those of married couples, such as rights of inheritance, public welfare rights, medical insurance, hospital and prison visiting rights and the right to make health care decisions for each other in case of incapacitation.
In truth, the overriding concern of the Church is the appearance of condoning or possibly normalizing homosexual relationships in Italy, as they have been in other places in Europe, with the perceived potential of harming the social standing of the traditional Catholic family.
"If today we don't say 'no' to DICO then how we could we say 'no' to pedophilia and incest?" said Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, head of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), one of the most powerful leaders of the Catholic Church in Italy and successor to the famous Cardinal Camillo Ruini, in talking about the alleged modern incapacity to distinguish good from evil.
He asked: "If the criterion is merely popular assent, and if we can't say 'no' today to the unstable cohabitation model of the family, how can we say 'no' to the legalization of incest or pedophilia?
Are we going to be like England, where brother and sister can live happily married [sic], or the Netherlands, with its pedophilic party?"
This dangerous ethical relativism, according to Bagnasco, could have aberrant consequences, if it is misinterpreted by public opinion, which goes on spreading by itself.
To support the Catholic idea of the family, which is shared by many, the Church and the Catholic parties have organized a big demonstration for May 12 against DICO.
Even priests have been given permission by the CEI to take part in the event, named "Family Day."
Recently Catholic leaders spoke out against gay marriage.
Cardinal Ruini, Bagnasco's predecessor at the CEI, addressed the issue of legalizing civil unions for homosexual couples, saying:"It must be said that homosexual unions are at odds with basic anthropological facts, in particular with the nonexistence of the blessing of generating children, which is the specific reason for the social recognition of marriage."
The cardinal warned against new legislation to resolve legal issues around unmarried couples "that would inevitably set up something similar to a marriage." "Minor changes to the country's civil code would be enough to resolve any legal gaps," he said, "while [this] new legislation would be a sure way to make the creation of authentic families more difficult, with great damage to people, starting with the children, and to Italian society."
He also said: "We do not ask for legal sanctions against homosexuals," adding that a legislative initiative of this type would be "much too negative for young people."The cardinal has revealed an awareness that many people who cohabit try to achieve an "optimal" relationship. "They want to see how it goes -- it is a transitory condition that must lead to a civil or religious wedding."
The government has been disconcerted by the remarks of the Catholic establishment.
"They might wound people's dignity," said the Minister without Portfolio for Opportunities and author of the bill, Barbara Pollastrini.
Opposition reactions seem favorable, although we don't know how much to trust them, since they may be only a smokescreen for a renewed offensive against the government.
"The president of the CEI [Bagnasco] is the victim of an unjustified attack," according to Maurizio Gasparri of the AN (Alleanza Nazionale, a national-conservative opposition party), "and he defends the principles and the moral values of our society."
Rocco Buttiglione, president of UDC (Union of Christian and Center Democrats), says: "It is not true that freedom means always saying 'yes' -- someone must start saying 'no.'
The conflict has become very tense in the last few weeks. Some groups of the extreme left want to heat up the social climate. Insults and death threats appeared on the walls of some areas of Genoa against Archbishop Bagnasco during the Easter season.
Phrases like "Bagnasco, you will die" and "Beware of bullets" have been signed by the terrorist group "Brigate Rosse," and in recent years this has reemerged as an issue in Italy, as it was in the 1980s.
Similar warnings appeared against Cardinal Ruini and the Pope on the main gate of the cathedral of St. Lorenzo. Even if the Chief of Police of Genoa, Salvatore Presenti, says that the situation is under control, tensions remain reminiscent of the assassinations of politicians and professors in recent years.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone warned of misinterpreting the Church's message and took issue with the mass media. "What should matter is not only the ideas that the Church has about sex but also the Church's everyday charitable works in all the world...Concerning morality, abortion and homosexual unions, the opinion of the Church has often been misunderstood."
Such is the political climate in Italy in the 21st century -- apparently unchanged from the debates of a thousand years ago between Church and State.
This standoff occurred in part because of the need by the coalition government for support from the more radical parties to maintain its tenuous hold on power. The position of the CEI against what it calls "concubinage" has sown confusion and acrimony in the political realm both among Catholics and the laity.
It is well known that politicians from a Church background were already divided into those in sympathy with Ruini and democratic Catholics, including the Catholic ministers of the current government. Bagnasco's position, no less determined than that of Ruini during his administration of the CEI, creates difficulties not only for Prodi himself, who is attempting to dodge this problem by postponing debate in Parliament, but especially the coalition government, relying on an undependable majority made up of Catholics, communists, liberals and socialists, who need to form a consensus with the most radical parties.
This climate of tension has occurred as a result of social discrimination by the Church, especially the CEI, against gays, taken by many as bigotry and prejudice.
First, hostility to a person's free choice of lifestyle means to be against freedom in general, and secondly, it means being opposed to all the other E.U. countries that have drafted their laws according to the wishes of their people.
Behind cries of "attack on marriage" or the fear that to accommodate marriage to the needs of other forms of union, such as cohabitation, could have "dangerous, unforeseen consequences" is an affront to the diversity that makes this life so fascinating.
It's hard to understand how these two incompatible "souls" of the same country have been able to coexist.
A most difficult question is how in the last 50 years of their common history the Italian people have gotten used to this kind of absurd miracle.
Freedom to be the man or woman you want to be and respect for others' differing ideas are the motivating power of democracy and are always worth talking about.
The duty of any church ought to be to comprehend this, as the duty of any decent media is always to make themselves be heard and not to pretend to a false unanimity.
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