(see related)
Controversy raged in Italy
Thursday over a historic court ruling recognising a gay marriage
contracted abroad and ordering it to be recorded in the local
civil register.
The powerful Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) said the
ruling, handed down by a tribunal in Grosseto on Wednesday in
relation to an Italian couple married in the United States,
"raises serious questions".
In a statement the bishops defined marriage "as the union
between a man and a woman" and said with this decision "one of
the fundamental pillars of the institution of marriage is likely
to be swept away, one that is rooted in our cultural tradition,
and is recognized and guaranteed in our constitution".
Gay Center spokesperson Fabrizio Marrazzo described the
CEI's reaction as "the umpteenth serious interference by the
Italian Bishops' Conference in matters concerning the law, civil
rights and freedoms of Italian citizens," and called on the
centre-left mayors of major Italian cities including Rome,
Naples, Turin, Milan and Bari to follow the lead taken by the
mayor of Grosseto, Emilio Bonifazi, by recording the overseas
marriages of resident gay couples in their civil registers.
Earlier in the day Bonifazi said his administration would
"conform immediately to the court's decision without
opposition," applauding the arrival of clear guidelines for
municipal civil-registry offices in respect to same-sex
marriages contracted overseas and calling on parliament to
provide coherent legislation on the matter.
Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Senator and ex-Arcigay
president Sergio Lo Giudice went one step further, saying "a law
on civil unions is all the more necessary in light of the
Grosseto ruling".
Gay and civil-rights activists in Italy have long been
pushing for a law granting legal recognition to same-sex couples
but efforts have always been thwarted by Catholic and right-wing
opposition.
Lo Giudice was echoed by former PD member of parliament and
president of Gaynet Italia, Franco Grillini.
"After Grosseto the Senate and House need to give priority
to the rapid recognition of the rights of gay couples," said
Grillini, describing as "unbearable" the slow pace at which
parliament has moved on the issue up till now.
Maurizio Sacconi, Senate whip for the New Centre Right of
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, took an opposite line,
describing as "absurd" the "campaigns launched by idealised
minorities to introduce fractious elements threatening the
cohesion of a country that is already depressed and
disorientated by contesting principles such as the
constitutional uniqueness of natural marriage".
Sacconi called on Catholics and non-Catholics to unite
against what he described as "this divisive campaign".
On Wednesday the Grosseto court upheld a petition by
Giuseppe Chigiotti and Stefano Bucci, 68 and 57, to be allowed
to record their marriage, contracted in New York in December
2012, in the local civil register after their request was
rejected by the municipal authorities on grounds that two people
of the same sex cannot be married under Italian law.
Local judge Paolo Cesare Ottati argued that the Italian
civil code "contains no reference to sex in relation to the
requisites" for marriage and that there is "no impediment to the
registration of a marriage contracted abroad".
Registration is not by nature "constitutive, but only
confirmative" of an act "that is already valid," he ruled.
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