The silver lining of an extremely cloudy governmental situation that after an ambiguous electoral result still shows no clear perspectives for a sustainable majority is that the emerged parliament is by far the most secular we’ve had in Italy for decades. While our association, UAAR, has applauded this ‘anomaly’, the leading Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana has voiced its preoccupation for “an Italy where Catholics are still relegated to a marginal role”, given the modest result of the post-Christian Democratic coalition led by Mario Monti. Lamenting the scarce relevance of Catholics is also the Vatican press organ, L’Osservatore Romano, and the head of the Italian Episcopal Conference cardinal Angelo Bagnasco.
Arcigay , the national lgbt association, has urged the “secular majority in the Parliament”, in particular the leader of the Democratic Party, Bersani, to set in motion the long-needed reform process, now that the majority of deputies and senators seems to be in favour of same-sex marriage. Hence the reaction of right-wing papers, scared of a “Zapaterist” and pro-gay drift, in a Parliament where “no political actor, in spelling out their values, refers to Catholicism anymore”. For some, the Catholic vote has been “drowned in a secular swamp” and most politically-committed Catholics do not dare to speak out, “fearing the censorship of a progressivism that has culturally taken over each and every aspect of life, in the name of relativism and secularism, thus opening the door to nihilism”, says PDL member Malgieri, echoing a staple argument of former pope Benedict XVI, who used to call for a “new evangelisation”.
However, MPs may not to be wearing their clerical heart on their sleeves because of an actual change in the Italian society, a change that for the first time politics are starting to take into account. The number of people openly stating their atheism and agnosticism is gradually increasing, while religious practice is shrinking, together with the trust in the Church itself, as preoccupied dioceses have ascertained through commissioned surveys. The latest election has confirmed the increased relevance of non-believers.
Institutionally, after the collapse of the Christian Democratic party in the early Nineties, efforts to regroup clericals and centre-oriented politicians have failed. Catholics have spread out left and right, but their specific political weight through the years has dwindled away. There may still be room for a Berlusconian breed of “hedonist” Catholics, but a relevant Catholic wedge seems now definitely gone with the end of the Christian Democratic party, as certified by the overall failure of Mont’s party.
One of the defenders of Italian confessionalism, Pierferdinando Casini, has acknowledged the defeat, and seems now inclined to put aside his Union of Democratic Christians (UDC) which dropped to a historic low at the recent consultations. His followers will however emigrate to new shores, just like after the CD debacle, threatening to cause further damage to the laity of political institutions, as UAAR has suggested in its Theses. It must be remembered that despite their ‘spiritual’ reassurances, these entities exist to seize power; the rise of the Catholic spiritual power in Italy followed a political move, too. It went from the opening of emperor Constantine to the imposition of the Christian creed as the only religion with Teodosio. We can’t really expect them to let go, and we can see how the UDC is already flirting with the centre-left coalition in view of the forthcoming administrative elections in Rome. And they are not in a rush, either: after all, Italy is still in the hands of what we’ve defined the ‘Bagnasco government’.