Unacceptable amibiguity

On 8 February the Italian government unanimously approved the bill with the title “Rights and duties of persons permanently living together” (known under the acronym ‘Dico’). It now awaits passage through Parliament. On 12 February, questioned by journalists on a question that has divided public opinion, Cardinal CAMILLO RUINI, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, announced that “a meditated and binding pronouncement” for those who abide by the teaching of the Church, but also one that would “provide clarification for everyone”, would shortly be issued on the ‘Dico’. “It could be important – he explained – to issue a meditated pronouncement in official form that would be binding for those who accept the teaching of the Church but that could provide clarification for everyone”. Benedict XVI, too, in recent days, has referred more than once to current threats to the family founded on marriage. Receiving the participants of the international congress “The natural moral law: problems and perspectives” in audience on 12 February, for example, the Pope denounced “a widespread legal relativism, founded on positivism, that produces legislative compromises between particular interests”, and recalled that “the natural moral law is a bulwark against the whims and abuses of power”. Speaking to the pontifical representatives in Latin America on 17 February, moreover, the Pope asked that “priority attention” be paid to the family, which “shows signs of yielding under the pressure of lobbies capable of having a negative impact on legislative processes”. In Italian dioceses, many bishops (as well as Catholic weeklies, associations and movements) have also taken a firm stance in support of the family founded on the marriage between man and woman; we cite a few examples below.“ALTERNATIVE” TO THE FAMILY. “When what’s at issue is the family, the primary and qualifying cell of society, no one can be permitted to stoop to compromises”, because the family “either is a family or it is not. Any possible tampering with it threatens to falsify its nature”, declares Bishop GIUSEPPE ZENTI of Vittorio Veneto, in rejecting the government’s bill on the rights of cohabiting couples (so called ‘Dico’). According to Msgr. Zenti, article 1 of the bill “sets the seal of approval on the social and civil reality of cohabiting couples”, so that they “are not only permitted, but also recognized and approved in their public, social and civil identity”. What is even graver, “the configuration this birth gives rise to is in fact not radically dissimilar from the identity of the family. If it is not a real competitor and alternative to the family, it is at least a poor copy of it”. “In a society in which the utilitarian norm is increasingly, and ever more deeply, pervading the human consciousness – observes Cardinal CARLO CAFFARRA, Archbishop of Bologna – offering an alterative to the family, and suggesting that the benefits peculiar to it can be achieved without submitting to the duties it involves, objectively means persuading people to choose according to the utilitarian norm”. UTILITARIAN CHOICE. “It’s a bill that, like all bills, does not limit itself merely to registering a de facto situation that exists (i.e. unmarried couples), but becomes a cultural event destined to have a profound impact on the moral substance of our population”, says Archbishop BENIGNO PAPA of Taranto, Vice-President of the Italian episcopate, in commenting on the ‘Dico’. He draws an analogy between what is happening today and the law on divorce, which “was presented at the time as a law that tried to alleviate intolerable and dramatic human situations, but that ended up by creating a divorce mentality”. So the bishop’s fear is that “something similar” may happen for the ‘Dico’, which “if approved, would end up creating a mentality that forming a family in the traditional sense, or devoting oneself to it, is not worth the bother”. Also for Archbishop ELIO TINTI of Carpi, “it would be a grave matter were the State to recognize alternative situations – i.e. cohabiting couples – that would weaken the institution of marriage; it would legitimate individualism and give free rein to utilitarianism instead of promoting a choice that combines freedom with responsibility”. According to Bishop CESARE NOSIGLIA of Vicenza, “what’s worrying is the message of a free-and-easy lifestyle that is being transmitted to the new generations, by recommending to them lifestyles and types of union that compete with the family founded on marriage, and that are being recognized and supported, in some sense even glorified, because they are offer more freedom and independence from constraints and responsibilities”.GRAVER THAN “PACS”. “The bill on so-called ‘dico’ is graver than the French legislation on civil partnerships (‘pacs’). This whole development arises from a big misunderstanding about what a couple is”, says Cardinal ERSILIO TONINI, archbishop emeritus of Ravenna-Cervia, replying to the question of a journalist. “The couple – explained the cardinal – is a formula that covers everything, but a couple formed of husband and wife is one thing and a couple formed of two homosexuals quite another. It’s not just an ethical, but also a legal question. Opposition to the ‘Dico’ is not a gesture of faith. What’s at issue here, rather, is the question whether marriage represents a fundamental civil value for our society”.