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ROME (AFP) - Campaigners for more liberal assisted fertility program in Italy blasted Pope Benedict XVI’s backing for Italian bishops who have called on voters to abstain from a June referendum aimed at relaxing the stringent laws.
Among those who lashed out at the pontiff was Italy’s Minister for Equal Opportunities Stefania Prestigiacomo, one of the members of Silvio Berlusconi’s government openly in favour of a “yes” vote.
Slamming the Church for its “misogynist” views, she said bishops were focusing “all the attention on the embryo, while the health of women, seriously threatened by some articles of the law, is being given no consideration.”
“It’s an unprecedented attack which is aimed at putting Italian democracy under the auspices of the Vatican,” said Daniele Capezzone, a leader of Italy’s Radical party campaigning for liberalization in the June 12 and 13 poll.
Addressing the Italian bishops’ conference on Monday, Pope Benedict praised the bishops for their defence of the rights of the embyro, and said it was their duty to “illuminate and motivate Catholics and all citizens” in the referendum.
The president of the conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, addressing bishops in the presence of the pope minutes earlier, reiterated his call for Catholics to boycott the vote. The referendum will be declared invalid if participation fails to rise through 50 percent.
The Radical party’s most high-profile figure, Euro MP Emma Bonino, said Ruini had behaved like the leader of a political party making a campaign speech.
The existing law introduced by Berlusconi’s government a year ago was designed to close a series of legal loopholes which made Italy’s legislation on fertility among the most liberal in the world.
But womens’ groups, lawmakers and other opponents collected four million signatures to back a court action to have the most restrictive parts of the law subjected to a referendum. . . .
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Among those who lashed out at the pontiff was Italy’s Minister for Equal Opportunities Stefania Prestigiacomo, one of the members of Silvio Berlusconi’s government openly in favour of a “yes” vote.
Slamming the Church for its “misogynist” views, she said bishops were focusing “all the attention on the embryo, while the health of women, seriously threatened by some articles of the law, is being given no consideration.”
“It’s an unprecedented attack which is aimed at putting Italian democracy under the auspices of the Vatican,” said Daniele Capezzone, a leader of Italy’s Radical party campaigning for liberalization in the June 12 and 13 poll.
Addressing the Italian bishops’ conference on Monday, Pope Benedict praised the bishops for their defence of the rights of the embyro, and said it was their duty to “illuminate and motivate Catholics and all citizens” in the referendum.
The president of the conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, addressing bishops in the presence of the pope minutes earlier, reiterated his call for Catholics to boycott the vote. The referendum will be declared invalid if participation fails to rise through 50 percent.
The Radical party’s most high-profile figure, Euro MP Emma Bonino, said Ruini had behaved like the leader of a political party making a campaign speech.
The existing law introduced by Berlusconi’s government a year ago was designed to close a series of legal loopholes which made Italy’s legislation on fertility among the most liberal in the world.
But womens’ groups, lawmakers and other opponents collected four million signatures to back a court action to have the most restrictive parts of the law subjected to a referendum. . . .
Full article