Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato rapped the Church on Thursday after it controversially instructed Catholic lawmakers to shoot down a bill giving rights to cohabiting couples, including gay ones.
Amato accused Catholic bishops of trying to "unilaterally impose their view of the common good", adding that "this is something that happens in societies which we criticise as Islamised".
The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) issued a directive Wednesday telling Catholic MPs to vote against a draft law dubbed DICO presented by the 10-month-old centre-left government.
If approved, it would allow cohabiting couples to register their union. Having done this they would be able to obtain certain financial and inheritance rights and 'next of kin' rights if their loved one is seriously ill.
Such couples currently have no shared rights to social benefits, property and inheritance - a situation which DICO supporters say is increasingly anomalous in a European state.
Premier Romano Prodi promised such a law in his election programme but must have the full support of his fractious Communists-to-Catholics coalition if it is to pass.
The CEI note said legal recognition of unwed couples was "unacceptable as a principle and dangerous on a social and educational level".
"Legalising unions between people of the same sex would be an even more serious problem because it would deny sexual differences, which cannot be overcome," it said.
Catholic MPs have a "moral duty to express their disagreement clearly and publicly and vote against any draft law that would recognise homosexual couples," the CEI said.
The note acknowledged that there could be situations in which guaranteeing the rights of cohabiting people could be "useful". But it argued that these situations could be resolved by adjusting norms on "individual rights".
POLITICAL REACTIONS.
Catholics on both sides of the political divide applauded the CEI's action.
Opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia defended the Church's right to speak out on the issue while the UDEUR, a centrist, Catholic party headed by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, declared: "Now we are not alone".
But other politicians accused the Church of interfering in national politics and breaching the Church-State divide.
Democratic Left chief Piero Fassino, whose party is the largest in government and one of the most secular minded, said on Thursday that the CEI note contained "many interesting points" but had "overstepped the mark" by telling Catholic MPs how to vote.
Another leading member of the Democratic Left talked of an "open conflict" between the Church and State while hard leftists in the nine-party governing coalition said: "We're heading for a showdown".
Gay rights groups, meanwhile, accused the Church of "increasing hostility" towards homosexuals.
Prodi, who now faces fiercer opposition to the DICO bill from his Catholic allies, refused to comment on the CEI note, saying he had not yet read the document.
The risk of a rift in the governing coalition increased after Minister Mastella said he would attend a Catholic-promoted and opposition-backed 'Family Day' demo in Rome on May 12.
Supporters of the protest are calling on the government to do more to help families and, although the DICO law is not mentioned in their manifesto, they oppose putting marriage on a par with "other forms of cohabitation".
Several other ministers criticised Mastella's decision to attend, stressing it would be an anti-government demo.
But the justice chief said he would resign if the government sought to prevent him going.
According to the most recent available figures from national statistics bureau Istat, the number of unmarried couples living together in Italy doubled between 1994 and 2003 from 227,000 to 555,000.
Recent polls show that most Catholics in the country are in favour of DICO-type legislation despite the Church's opposition.
