How can the concordat with the Church be changed or revoked

The intervention of the Holy See on the Zan bill has put the agreements between Rome and Vatican City back at the center of the discussion

(Photo: Corbis) The path to approval of the Zan bill is hampered by parliamentary obstruction, tactical slowdowns and now even the Lateran Pacts of 1929. The Vatican City state has formally asked the Italian government to stop the approval of the bill proposed by the deputy of the Democratic Party Alessandro Zan, to combat homolesbobitransphobia, misogyny and ability, calling into question the agreements that regulate relations between state and church. Recognized by article 7 of the Constitution, the Lateran Pacts guarantee the Catholic religion a privileged status compared to other confessions present in Italy and their modification requires a particular procedure.

Article 7 of the Constitution

“The State and the Catholic Church are, each in its own order, independent and sovereign. Their relations are regulated by the Lateran Pacts. The amendments to the Pacts accepted by the two parties do not require a constitutional revision procedure. "

With this formulation the pacts have been recognized by the Constitution, with the consequence that Italy cannot modify them unilaterally as, on the contrary, it could do with any treaty with other foreign states. However, Article 7 did not raise the pacts to a constitutional rule, but only the concordat principle, that is, the existence of the agreement which in fact was modified in 1984 without the need for a reform of the Constitution. The article specifies that the changes can only be implemented with the agreement between the two parties, thus imposing a constitutional revision in case the Italian state decides to modify them without the Vatican agreement.

How Article 7 can be amended or repealed

There are two ways. The first provides for the Vatican's consent, through an agreement between the parties in which the Church should independently renounce its privileges.

The second, on the other hand, provides for the unilateral denunciation of the Concordat by the government and the abolition of the article 7 of the Constitution. In this case, the Catholic Church would be equated with other religions and its relations with Italy regulated through an agreement. To activate this procedure, however, an amendment to the Constitution itself is required, governed by Article 138. According to the article, the review must be adopted by each House with two consecutive resolutions over at least 3 months which must be approved by an absolute majority. Subsequently, the law can be submitted to a popular referendum if requested by either one fifth of the members of a House, or by 500,000 electors and electricians, or by 5 regional councils. Therefore it is not possible to modify article 7 through a popular proposal, but it is up to the parliamentarians to take the initiative.

However, according to some legal interpretations, since article 7 refers only to the Lateran Pacts and not to the new Concordat made in 1984, the latter could no longer enjoy constitutional protection and therefore could be compared to the agreements with religious confessions provided for in article 8. Based on this, the change could take place without the need for constitutional revision.




Politics - 19 hours ago

What are the Concordat and the Lateran Pacts drawn up against the Zan bill

adsJSCode ("nativeADV1", [[2,1]], "true", "1", "native", "read-more", "1"); Politics - 23 hours ago

Why Venice risks losing the title of Unesco site once again

adsJSCode ("nativeADV2", [[2,1]], "true", "2 "," native "," read-more "," 2 "); Environment - 24 hours ago

Cremona, more famous for smog than violin

Topics

Catholic Church Rights Government Italy Legal lgbt + Pride Month globalData.fldTopic = "Church Catholic, Rights, Government, Italy, Legal, lgbt +, Pride Month "

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.