Vatican ends automatic adoption of Italian law

The Vatican will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws as its own, a top Vatican official said, citing the vast number of laws Italy churns out, many of which are in odds with Catholic doctrine.

The surprise announcement in the Vatican's newspaper, Osservatore Romano, yesterday immediately prompted debate on whether the move was a rebuke to Italian government policies, with one newspaper commentator calling it a "masked warning".

The Vatican has had a sometimes tense relationship with left-leaning Italian governments over issues such as gay unions and stem cell research. It sees more eye-to-eye with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government, though it has expressed concern over its crackdown on immigration.

Under existing law, the Vatican accepts Italian law automatically except on bilateral treaties or when there is a sharp divergence with basic canon law, wrote José Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Vatican commission on law revisions.

But under a new law signed by Pope Benedict on October 1, Vatican authorities will first examine Italian laws before deciding whether to adopt them, he wrote in Osservatore Romano.

The change stemmed from the "really exorbitant number" of Italian laws, their "instability", and their frequent "contrast" with Catholic Church principles, Mgr Ruiz wrote. The new procedure comes into effect today, he wrote.

Taken by surprise, Roberto Calderoli, Italy's minister for legislative simplication, complained that the Vatican ought to have made the change under the previous centre-left government and said he hoped the Vatican would reconsider its decision.

"Frankly, until now I have not seen any move by our government that goes in a direction against Church values," he told the leading Corriere della Sera newspaper.