Snippets from the Italian Scene
Religious Freedom in Italy &
Getting Along
Abandoning Sicily, but not religion, I was recently asked what sort of religious freedoms Italy offers. Complete and total; the Italian Constitution guarantees the separation of Church and State. However, the constitutional decree doesn't mean that the Church hasn't influenced the workings of the State; the most blatant example certainly occurred in the elections of 1948, when the polls put the Christian Democrats and the Communists neck-and-neck, and the priests repeatedly reminded their parishioners that, though Stalin couldn't see into a voting booth, God could. The Christian Democrats won, setting the stage for 45 years of mildly conservative national rule.
The tide of Near Eastern and North African immigration that has rumbled in over the past decade may be changing things, however. Cardinal Biffi of Bologna, one of Italy's more conservative clergymen, recently caused an uproar by suggesting that Italy should keep Muslims out, on the grounds that they cannot be assimilated into the predominately Catholic Italian culture, and will seek to take over if enough come in. He also suggested that Italy should favor the immigration of those from Catholic countries such as Poland or the Philippines over those from elsewhere. Howls of protest from some quarters, including some priests who are involved in missionary work, but Bossi's Lega Nord agrees whole heartedly with the Cardinal and has staged rallies to protest one Northern city's decision to allow the construction of a mosque. To further muddy the waters, Gianfranco Fini of Alleanza Nazionale (a conservative party in the same camp with the Lega Nord) came out against the Lega Nord's protests, saying the State must remain non-denominational. We shall see what happens, though it's obvious that this "us-against-them" mentality isn't good for anyone; we have an excellent example of where it leads across the Adriatic in the former Yugoslavia.
And it is nice to note that in the face of disaster people do bury the hatchet. This past week has been the worst in living memory for those living in the Northeast, in particular Val D'Aosta and northeastern Piemonte, where it rained more than 600 mm in 48 hours, and then tapered off, but only slightly, for another 48 hours. The entire region of Val D'Aosta was completely isolated, becoming a muddy inclined lake, and then the Po River filled up, surpassing the record levels reached in 1951 throughout its length and flooding huge tracts all the way to the Adriatic (some of Mario Soldati's footage of the 1951 flood was spliced into the second Don Camillo movie with Ceno Cervi and Fernandel, if you want to see that). Lago Maggiore also got into the act, flooding the towns on its banks, and the Ticino flooded Pavia. Everyone has pitched in to help, and about the only other positive thing one can say is that all considered the death toll was very low -- the authorities got the word out down river (Aosta was too sudden), and evacuations were timely. Now things are slowly returning to normal and the roads are again open, though it will be at leas a year before all the damage is repaired.
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