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From DallasVoice.com International Head of Italian Bishops' Conference says Catholic Church should not back any one candidate, but should stress "'unrenounceable' values
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the head of the Italian Bishops' Conference, told Italian prelates at their annual meeting that neither they nor the Catholic Church should interfere in backing one party or candidate over another before the April 9 vote. At the same time, though, he said it was the church's job to stress certain "unrenounceable" values that Italians should take into account when voting. Abortion and giving legal recognition to unmarried couples have been hot-button issues in the electoral campaign so far. Ruini said Italy, like other countries, was witnessing trends to introduce "norms, which while not responding to true social needs, would gravely compromise the value and function of the legitimate family founded on marriage and the necessary respect for human life from conception to natural death." He said such issues required "additional attention" by electors in choosing their future parliamentary representatives. Italy, where Vatican influence is strong, does not recognize unions of unmarried couples. The center-left candidate for premier, Romano Prodi, has said his coalition would give legal status to unmarried couples if it won the April 9 vote, but he has not supported legalizing gay marriage. Gay and lesbian associations, however, have been pushing for common-law couples to have legal recognition in hopes the move might pave the way for granting legal status to gay couples. Abortion, which the Vatican often refers to in speaking about the need to protect human life from conception to natural death, has also become something of an electoral issue. Abortion up to the end of the third month of pregnancy was legalized in predominantly Catholic Italy in 1978, after a long battle between the Vatican and secular forces. Recently, the abortion pill RU-486 became available in parts of Italy on an experimental basis. Ruini's bishops' conference has mounted a renewed fight against abortion and the RU-486 pill, turning abortion into a campaign issue for the first time since Italians upheld the law in a 1981 referendum sponsored by the church in a bid to overturn it. Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI chimed in on both issues, telling Italian officials that doctors should not give women the abortion pill because it hides the "gravity" of taking a human life, and that it was wrong to give legal recognition to gay unions. This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition of January 27, 2006. © Copyright by DallasVoice.com |
