Premier Matteo Renzi said Thursday
he expected Catholic opposition to his civil unions law, but as
premier he swore to uphold the Constitution not the Gospel.
"The negative attitude of the Catholic hierarchy and part
of the Catholic world was to be expected," he told RAI public
broadcaster's Porta a Porta talk show. "I am a Catholic but I do
politics as a lay person: I swore on the Constitution and not on
the Gospel. But I respect everyone".
His government's civil unions bill became law in a
confidence vote yesterday.
A group of lawmakers from various centre-right parties
announced at a press conference at the Lower House earlier that
they plan to call a referendum to scrap the new law which
regulates civil unions, including those between same-sex
couples.
The law extends to committed gay couples some of the same
rights and protections currently enjoyed by heterosexual married
couples, such as the right to receive a deceased partner's
pension.
Until yesterday, Italy was the only western European
country not to have either legalised gay marriage or recognised
civil unions between same-sex couples.
The architect of the law, Senator Monica Cirinnà from
Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said she was not
spooked by the prospect of a referendum.
"I hope there is a referendum because we will win it and,
above all, it would be a path to soon get to full equality," she
said of the original bill, which was watered down in a
compromise with Catholics and other conservatives in the ruling
left-right coalition.
Also on Thursday, lawmaker Michela Marzano said she is
quitting the PD because the bill was passed after measures on
stepchild adoption and references to the family were dropped.
The stepchild adoption provision would have allowed civil
union partners to adopt each other's biological children. She
said dropping it was "not just difficult to accept, but also to
justify publicly".
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