Article by Marzio Pelu` — Translation and Video: CNMNG Staff

For the first time, the Vatican is officially asking the Italian government to amend a bill, appealing to the Concordat, the “pact” that regulates relations between the Italian state and the Catholic Church.

The bill in question is the one born on the initiative of the deputy Pd Alessandro Zan and which has been in the spotlight for months in Italy because, according to several political parties, it would jeopardize freedom of expression by providing severe penalties for opinions that can be classified as offences based “on sex, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity “.

According to the Vatican Secretariat of State, this bill would violate “the Concordat revision agreement” and for this reason, a verbal note signed by the Vatican Secretary for relations with states, Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, was delivered to the Italian Embassy to the Holy See on June 17, with the aim “not of blocking” the Zan bill but of “reshaping it so that the Church can continue to carry out its pastoral, educational and social action freely”. The matter was then forwarded by the Farnesina to the Prime Minister and is being examined by Palazzo Chigi. Two points are highlighted in the document.

In the first, the Vatican stresses that according to the text (which is under discussion in the Senate) Catholic schools would not be exempted from organizing the future “National Day Against Homophobia”. In the second, the Vatican expresses fears for the “freedom of thought” of Catholics, who would risk judicial consequences in expressing their convictions. These passages are very reminiscent of what is happening in Toronto where a heated debate is underway, even with legal consequences, for the display of the “Pride” flag in Catholic Schools.