Author: Steve Pagani
Publications:The Asian Age
Date: March 28, 20001
Rome, March 27: Roman Catholic Church
leaders in Italy have vowed to stay out of the political debate ahead of
the May 13 general election but are still urging the faithful only to vote
for parties supporting Church teachings.
Italian bishops say they are adopting
a neutral position of "non-interference during the election campaign.
In the same breath, they are telling
Catholics to vote for parties opposing abortion, cloning and euthanasia
and advocating family values against moves to legitimise common law unions,
especially for homosexual couples. "The Church, that is the clergy and
those representing ecclesiastical bodies, should not and will not align
themselves with any political side or party' " Cardinal Camillo Ruini,
head of Italy's powerful Bishops' Conference, told bishops on Monday.
"But this does not mean we believe
every idea or vision of the world is compatible with the Catholic faith,"
said Cardinal Ruini, who is considered close to Pope John Paul.
"And it does not mean Catholics
ought to he supporting a party or movement opposed to, or not sufficiently
attentive to, the principles ... of the Church's social doctrine," he said.
The Catholic Church in Italy has
come a long way from the days when priests in their pulpits told congregations
openly that heaven only awaited those who voted Christian Democrat and
that Communists with their atheist beliefs were sinful.
From the end of World War II until
the end of the 1980s, Italy was split down ideological lines with the Christian
Democrat right pitted against the most powerful Communist Party out-side
the Eastern bloc.
Traditional institutions holding
sway in Italy like the Catholic Church, and the Mafia in Sicily, were regarded
as being key in keeping the reins of power out of Communist reach.
The corruption scandals of the early
1990s sounded the death knell for the Christian Democrats who split off
into several parties. Many joined the conservative Forza Italia party led
by twice-married billionaire Silvio Berlusconi. Forza Italia became Italy's
most popular party in regional elections last, April, a position it maintains
in most polls. A poll in the La Stampa newspaper on Monday gave Mr Berlusconi's
centre-right bloc a slim 4.3 per cent lead over the centre left.
But the centre-left coalition headed
by Mr Francesco Rutelli, a vocal opponent of the Vatican in his youth,
also includes Catholic former Christian Democrats in the Popular Party.
Cardinal Ruini's comments were manna
from heaven for some politicians on the right.
Mr Riceardo Pedrizzi of the far-right
National Alliance, said his party was committed, to protecting the right
to life and believed families should only be brought up within marriage.
Mr Enrico Boselli, leader of the
Leftist Italian Social Democratic Party inside the ruling coalition, said
he respected whatever choices the Bishops' conference made.
"But I also have to remind them
that besides Catholic values, we also defend another important principle
- that of the secular state," Mr Boselli said
A survey in Millan's Carriere della
Sera daily on Tuesday showed practising Catholics no longer swore allegiance
to one "Catholic" party. The poll showed 37 per cent of respondents backing
the centre right and 24.7 per cent the centre left.
The Church could well he targeting
the rather surprising figure of 14.6 per cent who back the ex-Communist
Democrats of the Left - the biggest party in the current coalition goverment.
(Reuters)
