Posted on 06/13/2005 12:08:57 PM PDT by NYer
Efforts to loosen Italy's assisted-fertility laws in a referendum failed Monday because low voter turnout invalidated the balloting — a victory for the Vatican.
Turnout must be more than 50 percent of the electorate for the vote in a referendum to be valid. In two days of balloting, only 25.9 percent of voters in Italy had cast ballots, according to final returns released by the Interior Ministry.
The vote was seen as a test of the Vatican's influence in a country that is overwhelmingly Catholic but has strayed from church doctrine, notably by approving divorce and abortion in referendums decades ago.
Balloting followed weeks of emotionally charged debate.
"Certainly the referendum was lost by a margin that I would not have expected," said Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner and one of the main proponents of the referendum.
"Today we have three victims: the secularism of the state, political authority and the institution of the referendum," she told reporters in Rome.
The Vatican had waged a fierce campaign to maintain the limitations currently envisioned in the law, including a ban on sperm and egg donation for couples undergoing assisted fertility treatment.
The Italian bishops' conference repeatedly called on voters to abstain, and Pope Benedict XVI endorsed the appeal. He contended that the efforts to overturn parts of the law posed threats to life and the family.
Opponents of the legislation said the law is too restrictive and prevents research to treat diseases.
"People complain but then they never do anything to solve their problems," said 42-year-old Concetta Naclerio, who went to the polls. "The majority of people who didn't vote on the referendum were lazy."
Other Italians mentioned the Vatican's campaign and the complexity of the issues at stake to explain the low turnout, as well as the fact that citizens have grown tired since referendums have been called frequently and on a variety of issues in the past decade.
No referendums have reached the required turnout since 1995.
The current law limits the number of embryos that can be created to three, forbids sperm or egg donation and prohibits scientific research using embryos.
The referendums asked voters whether Italy should end all those limitations, as well as permit fertile couples with hereditary diseases to screen their embryos.
Equal Opportunities Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo, who had campaigned to have the law loosened, expressed disappointment.
"It has been an important battle of conscience, which I consider right. The motivations still remain even if the result is not satisfactory," Prestigiacomo said. "The problems of this law remain."
Italian politicians were split, with parties generally telling their voters to decide according to their consciences.
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was among the early voters Sunday, but did not say how he cast his ballot. Premier Silvio Berlusconi did not disclose if he voted.
Italians have defied the church in two referendums considered milestones for Italian society: Divorce was upheld in 1974 and abortion in 1981. The latter vote dealt a blow to the late Pope John Paul II, who campaigned vigorously against abortion.
The trend seemed to be confirmed by a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, which found that nearly two-thirds of Italians think religious leaders should not try to influence government decisions.
Puhlease!!! What nonsense!!
No referendums have reached the required turnout since 1995.
That's it! People are lazy; they don't want to go to the poles. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Vatican. That is the machinations of the mainstream media who seek any excuse to launch salvos at the Catholic Church, for its "antiquated" teachings.
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
"No referendums have reached the required turnout since 1995."
What is the big deal with this one?
Apparently .. nothing.
BTTT! You're right.
I don't understand why the Vatican would be against this. Anyone know the reasoning behind it? Are they also against other types of 'biological' donations, e.g. blood or organ donation?
The Catholic Church teaches against creating babies in test tubes, period.
I don't blame them. They're extremely cold and it takes a pack of dogs and a sled to get there.
Oh you meant those poles? I thought NYer was dragging Poland into this mess. Thanks for clearing that up. I was about to post a strongly worded reply demanded that we let Poland be Poland! ;-D
The Church has consistently taught against such things as sperm donation, egg donation, and in vitro fertilization because these processes alienate reproduction from its proper environment of a sexual relationship between a man and woman in marriage. Additionally, since in vitro fertilization as a practical reality results in the fertilization and disgarding of many embryos, the consequence is the meaningless destruction of human life. Sperm donation, also, essentially requires lust and distances sexual pleasure from a marriage. The bottom line is that these modern innovations do harm to the traditional ethos that sexual pleasure is necessarily linked to reproduction and is only healthy within the context of marriage, and then it becomes a source of virtue.
The Church, on the other hand, applauds the donation of blood and other internal organs. These modern innovations do not do harm to human relationships, but rather improve them and in some senses mirror Christ's sacrifice.
(I'm sorry if this is tangental to the discussion.)
Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense to me.
In this case it actually was specifically the Vatican who backed up the Italian bishops.
In this case, Pope Benedict urged Catholics to boycott the referendum.
Votes just aren't going the way of the Liberals.
G.W.B. re-elected. Allies mostly re-elected. Chirac loses important referendum. EU taking a hit with each vote by the people. Schroeder and Chirac in trouble electorally. Now the people of Italy give consideration to the view of the Church they claim to be a part of, and vote down an attack on life.
No wonder they are becoming so shrill.
While I'm glad to hear that the law wasn't changed, I think Italy has a really stupid system in which voters who oppose a measure have an incentive to register to vote and then boycott the election.
I meant to say:
While I'm glad to hear that the law wasn't changed, I think Italy has a really stupid system in that voters who oppose a measure have an incentive to register to vote and then boycott the election.
I take it you have not spent much time in Italy ;-D. No offense to the Italians; I am part Italian and love them dearly but sometimes .... well, you get the idea.
I don't know. I like the thought that a measure actually requires people to go out and show their support in adequae numbers. Otherwise you run the risk of a small activist segment of the population having more say than their size as a percentage of the population would give them.
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