THE ITALIAN REFERENDUM STARTS: IS VICTORY AT THE DOORS FOR THE CHURCH?
Tomorrow and after-tomorrow, the Italian referendum on assisted reproduction starts. We remind the readers that the referendum was initiated by the leaders of the Italian Radical party, and that it aims at authorizing stem cell research, pre-implantation diagnosis, the freezing of embryos for IVF, and heterologous IVF (IVF with the games of a donor(s). Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the leader of the Italian episcopal conference, with the strong support of Pope Benedict XVI recommended to Italians to abstain from voting in the referendum.
The turnout of the Italians living in foreign countries (about 2.5 million electors) furnished some encouraging results for the Catholic Church. Only about 400,000 electors voted (16 % of the electorate in foreign countries). And the latest polls have shown that about 40 % of the Italians thought to go to vote.
It would be hazardous to make now already projections on the possible failure of the referendum to reach the quorum, but should this prove to be the case, then the Catholic Church could possibly claim the first victory of Benedict XVI’s papacy on the field of bioethics. It would have proved the necessity for the Church of facing directly, in the political field, proponents of bioethical perversions.
At the moment, the polls are pointing out the fact that most Italians don’t really know what to think about these referenda. That might be deemed a progress if progress there is: if the media and the Radical party had been left to their own devices, three quarters of the population would have repeated the point of view of the proponents of the referendum.
But it will also speak of a moral emptiness in most of Italy’s political world: none of the parties was able to define a clear and coherent position with respect to these ethical questions, and none will be able to claim the fruits of its campaign in favour of abstention. Retrospectively, a victory of the abstention will also show that the Catholic Church is now passing on another gear: it will now have to go down in the field of politics itself , in Europe - and its campaign will have been sufficiently efficient if the referenda fail.
Is that a rebirth of theocracy? No, definitely not. Nevertheless, when there is a moral void in the authorities, the Church has taken up the message of the Common Good. Theocracy, itself, was a reply to the moral disorder of the middle ages, and it helped to open the door to the modern ideas. So now, when the concept of human being is questioned, it is logical that the Church expresses itself. But I will probably analyse it in more detail after the referenda’s exits are known.
The turnout of the Italians living in foreign countries (about 2.5 million electors) furnished some encouraging results for the Catholic Church. Only about 400,000 electors voted (16 % of the electorate in foreign countries). And the latest polls have shown that about 40 % of the Italians thought to go to vote.
It would be hazardous to make now already projections on the possible failure of the referendum to reach the quorum, but should this prove to be the case, then the Catholic Church could possibly claim the first victory of Benedict XVI’s papacy on the field of bioethics. It would have proved the necessity for the Church of facing directly, in the political field, proponents of bioethical perversions.
At the moment, the polls are pointing out the fact that most Italians don’t really know what to think about these referenda. That might be deemed a progress if progress there is: if the media and the Radical party had been left to their own devices, three quarters of the population would have repeated the point of view of the proponents of the referendum.
But it will also speak of a moral emptiness in most of Italy’s political world: none of the parties was able to define a clear and coherent position with respect to these ethical questions, and none will be able to claim the fruits of its campaign in favour of abstention. Retrospectively, a victory of the abstention will also show that the Catholic Church is now passing on another gear: it will now have to go down in the field of politics itself , in Europe - and its campaign will have been sufficiently efficient if the referenda fail.
Is that a rebirth of theocracy? No, definitely not. Nevertheless, when there is a moral void in the authorities, the Church has taken up the message of the Common Good. Theocracy, itself, was a reply to the moral disorder of the middle ages, and it helped to open the door to the modern ideas. So now, when the concept of human being is questioned, it is logical that the Church expresses itself. But I will probably analyse it in more detail after the referenda’s exits are known.
posted by dawnofeurope | 5:10 pm
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