Italian Catholics demonstrate against same-sex civil union Bill

More than 300,000 Italian Catholics gathered at the Circus Maximus in Rome on Saturday to declare their opposition to the proposed legislation of same-sex civil unions. Saturday’s “Family Day” came by way of response to a similar demonstration by supporters of the legislation, including various LGBT lobby groups, just one week ago.

Although the laity’s Family Day had the obvious tacit support of the Italian Bishops’s Conference (CEI), the Italian hierarchy played no role in the demonstration, with the meeting being addressed by lay activists, under the banner of “Let Us Defend Our Children”.

Massimo Gandolfini, spokesperson for "Let Us Defend Our Children", was adamant in his rejection of the Bill, saying: "People see Italy as trailing behind on this issue but in fact Italy is the guiding light which indicates the path of civility to Europe...this Cirinnà (civil union) Bill is unacceptable from the first line to the last and it must be utterly rejected."

Supporters of the Bill point out that last summer the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg ruled Italy to be in violation of human rights, through its failue to offer adequate legal protection to same sex couples. Currently, Italy is the only major Western Europe power which does not have some form of same sex civil union or same sex marriage legislation on its statute book.

Many on Saturday, however took their line from Pope Francis who last week warned against "confusion" between God's design (for the family) and "any other type of union". In essence, many demonstrators share the Pope's concern that there be any attempt to equiparate same-sex civil unions with marriage between a man and a woman.

Furthermore, last week the head of the CEI, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, argued that people do not have a “right” to have a child, adding: “Children have the right to grow up with a mother and a father. The family is an anthropological fact, not an ideological one.”

Undoubtedly, the most controversial clause in the Bill is the so-called “Stepchild Adoption” norm which would allow the non-biological parent in a same-sex couple to adopt children had within their relationship, perhaps through the practise of surrogate motherhood, currently illegal in Italy.

It remains to be seen what influence, if any, Saturday's meeting will have on the Bill's parliamentary progress. The proposal, which bears the name of Democratic Party (PD) Senator, Monica Cirinnà, has the support of PD leader and prime minister Matteo Renzi. However, in what may well be a secret ballot when it comes to a vote, probably in two weeks time, the PD have not imposed a party whip, rather considering it to be a matter of individual "conscience".

This could well see Catholic PD parliamentarians vote against the bill. A further complication concerns the protest Five Stars Movement, which is strongly in favour of the legislation as it currently stands but which will vote against the Bill if it is weakened by consensus-seeking amendments, especially in relation to the “Stepchild Adoption” clause. The road ahead for this bill continues to look steep and rising.