the one they are all afraid to mention

[adriatica]

Italian politicians be they rich or poor right or left have all one thing in common ... unless they are part of the side that is in agreement with catholic doctrine.... they do not portray openly any opposition to Vatican pronouncements...

there was an interesting ...for me alarming incident in Naples a few months back when an aborted foetus was confiscated and a mother taken off by police to be interrogated , still under the influence of the anesthetic because she had been denounced for having an abortion after the limit here...

the reasons in a sense were medical as the foetus had been shown to have major problems and they had had to make a difficult decision as regards continuing the pregnancy...

a major protest from women's groups ensued but none from politicians and because of the ferrara campaign here who wants a moratorium on the mass murder of babies...much like the one on capital punishment there is now even less verbal comments from politicos on how Italy will proceed

this is despite the fact that abortions here have reached an all time low since they were legalised ... everyone runs scared of loosing that part of the catholic vote....

mention the abortion pill... and its a definite no no... so campaigns here are pretty timid in respect of the rights of women.... hopefully it will change after this election as both of the main parties are upping women's quotas although berlusconi takes the lead in this ...and we will get a more verbal and politically balanced opinion despite the fear of loosing parts of the voting religious right....

it makes Italy I think unusual in respect of national elections, this significant lobby which they all have to take note of...maybe portugal and ireland are similar...but here its a fact that should you make a contentious statement regarding a part of life that the vatican has pronounced on there is major back pedalling and apologising to make sure no one has taken offence... its all very timid ...

[ronald]

An old Italian film depicts this situation perfectly - it was the glory days of the democristiani - the party that rules Italy for decades and the priest from the pulpit says "I don't want to influence your vote but just want to tell you that you should vote for a party that is democratic and christian".

Given that the other main players where the Socialist and the Communists ....