← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hilaire Belloc
Thread ID: 10694 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-10-23
2003-10-23 18:31 | User Profile
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=7&u=/nm/20031023/od_nm/life_italy_divorce_dc[/url]
Putting the Brakes on Faster Divorces
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's parliament blocked a draft law designed to make divorce proceedings faster and easier, a surprise move that is sure to please the Roman Catholic Church but will frustrate many Italians.
In a vote that was made secret at the last minute, lawmakers approved an amendment that annulled plans to reduce the period of legal separation before divorce proceedings can begin to one year from a current three years.
"Attempts to turn the institution of marriage into a hasty affair have been stopped," said Luca Volonte, the head of the government coalition UDC party in parliament.
Some parties in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition had openly opposed the bill, which was drawn up by the center-left, but it was still expected to pass due to increasing demand from the general public for quicker divorces.
When the center-left drew up the new draft law, the Catholic Church openly opposed it.
"The vote against the reduction of the separation period has sent parliament back into the 70s," said one center-left lawmaker.
By approving the amendment, parliament has sent the legislation back for discussion at lower political level -- and it is not likely to emerge again any time soon.
Divorce was only made possible in Italy after a national referendum in 1974. The period of legal separation was already cut to three from five years in 1987.
A poll at the beginning of the year showed up to three quarters of Italians wanted a shorter waiting period.
2003-10-23 20:15 | User Profile
A poll at the beginning of the year showed up to three quarters of Italians wanted a shorter waiting period.
What the hell has happened to the Italians. The Catholic Church and Italy once were one and the same.
2003-10-23 21:08 | User Profile
[QUOTE=jamestown]What the hell has happened to the Italians. The Catholic Church and Italy once were one and the same.[/QUOTE]
The nation of Italy has only existed since 1860, and came into existence in the face of total opposition from the papacy (and the other secular Italian states). There has always been a very strong anti clerical streak in Italy - a tough call for Italian nationalists, many of whom were and are quite anti clerical.
The country that would have followed conservative church teachings was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the sovereign of which (Ferdinand II) actually turned down the crown of a united Italy because accepting it would have meant betraying the Papal States. The House of Savoy had no such scruples.
Rome only became part of Italy in 1870 - over the bodies of a number of troops who had remained loyal to the Pope.