The Church and politics in Italy
For four decades after the end of WWII, the Catholic Church wielded power in Italy through the Christian Democrats, so thorougly discredited by corruption scandals that the party was dissolved in the early 1990s after its last Premier, Giulio Andreotti, was found by a court to have extensive Mafia ties. But now, following 15 years of enforced slumber, the Roman Catholic Church has made the decision to relaunch the Church in Italy as a political force — and all signs are that it will work. And even as the front-running Prodi campaigns up and down the Italian peninsula from a proletarian yellow bus, the Vatican — with a vintage1950 political ideology and strategy — has moved into higher gear too.
Other events that should be getting attention are being stifled by the press: the Italian-version of an Enron trial, that of giant food multi-national Parmalat’s founder, Calisto Tanzo, and 15 other Parmalat execs, started Wednesday in Milan, as tiny articles on inside pages testified. Similarly neglected was the serious wrestling match which pits the Governor of the Bank of Italy Antonio Fazio — who was caught playing dirty pool and is under investigation for abuse of office by Rome prosecutors, but is backed by the secretive and powerful, Vatican-favored Opus Dei cult — against those in Italian and international banking who are demanding he resign.
Instead, day after day, the big headlines are going to the Church — for example, to a debate over whether high school and university students in Siena had a right to boo the Cardinal Primate of Italy, the austere Cardinal Ruini, for saying that he opposes "de facto marital unions," meaning unwed heterosexuals as well as gay couples. In this September 23 incident, 40 students ousted from the hall where Riuni was speaking then congregated outside, waving placards like, "Free love in a free State," and "We are all homosexuals."
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