ADMITTED CULTS. – With this designation, Italian legislation, from June 1929 until 1943 (and exceptionally also thereafter: cf. Royal Decree-Laws no. 581 of 7 June 1946 and no. 604 of 30 May 1947), referred to those cults, other than the Catholic religion, whose practice was permitted in Italy.
Although Article 1 of the Italian Statute of 1848 declared that the Catholic religion was the only religion of the State and that other cults were merely tolerated, in practice Italian legislation prior to the Concordat had effectively established an almost complete parity of all cults before the State. With the Conciliation, matters changed in part.
Confirmed in Article 1 of the Lateran Treaty was the principle that the only religion of the State was the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion. A specific law (24 June 1929, no. 1159) regulated the legal position of other cults, which in that law were for the first time designated as "admitted cults."
Not all cults other than the Catholic religion were admitted, but only those that did not profess principles or follow rites contrary to public order and morality (Article 1 of the aforementioned law).
It also established that the practice, even public, of such cults was free (ibid.). However, as the Minister of Justice explained in his report, “the permission granted to the followers of non-Catholic cults to freely engage in religious practices according to their own convictions does not imply the State’s indifference in religious matters, nor much less an adherence to the doctrines of such cults. It is instead the simple and direct consequence of the general principle of public law that any activity not in conflict with the fundamental exigencies of society and the State must be considered licit and, as such, permitted and protected by the law. That is, while professing the Catholic religion, which is the religion of almost all Italians, the State permits, allows, and admits—and thus protects—the practice of other cults as well, provided that no harm is thereby done to the essential principles governing the life of the State.”
For the public practice of admitted cults, the faithful of each cult may have their own place of worship or oratory, the opening of which is subject to prior government authorization. In these buildings open to worship, the respective faithful may freely hold public gatherings for the performance of religious ceremonies or other acts of worship, provided that the gathering is presided over or authorized by a minister of worship whose appointment has been approved by the government (Articles 1–2 of Royal Decree no. 289 of 28 February 1930).
Ministers of admitted cults may be authorized to visit places of care or retreat to provide religious assistance to those who request II. Authorization is granted by the administrative director of the place of care or retreat and must specify the modalities and precautions with which such assistance is to be provided (Article 5 of the aforementioned Royal Decree).
Ministers of admitted cults may be authorized to provide religious assistance to those interned in institutions of prevention or punishment whenever requested by the internees or their families or by those with legal guardianship over them, in observance of the rules contained in the special regulations for such institutions (Article 6 of the Royal Decree).
In the event of mobilization of the State’s armed forces, the military authority entrusted with the supreme direction of military operations may authorize ministers of worship whose appointment has been approved to provide religious assistance to non-Catholic military personnel; the same authority establishes the rules and precautions governing such assistance (Article 8 of the Royal Decree).
Various norms, moreover, analogous to those established for Catholic ecclesiastical bodies, govern the legal recognition (for civil purposes) and the activity of the bodies and institutions of admitted cults; the fiscal equalization of religious ends with those of charity and education; and the deferral or exemption from military service in favor of ministers of worship or those destined to become such (Articles 7, 9, and 12 of the aforementioned Royal Decree; Article 632 of the regulation approved by Royal Decree no. 1133 of 3 April 1942, for students of certain Protestant theological faculties).
With regard to religious instruction in public schools, to avoid non-Catholics being compelled to attend Catholic religion courses, it is established that parents or guardians may request exemption from attendance at the aforementioned courses for their children. In certain cases, where the number of pupils warrants it and time permits, heads of families professing a non-Catholic cult may obtain the use of a school room for the religious education of their children, with appropriate safeguards (Article 23 of the Royal Decree).
Special norms also govern the celebration of marriage for non-Catholics; indeed, a marriage celebrated before a minister of an admitted cult whose appointment has been approved produces, from the day of celebration, the same effects as a marriage celebrated before a civil registrar, provided that the minister of worship has been duly authorized by the competent civil registrar and that the marriage record is regularly transcribed in the civil status registers (other minor formalities, though essential, are too numerous to detail here). This marriage, however, unlike that celebrated before a Catholic priest (which is governed by canon law), is, for the State, entirely regulated by civil law; and thus all provisions governing marriage celebrated before a civil registrar apply to it, including those regarding nullity and dissolution. The only difference between a purely civil marriage and a non-Catholic religious marriage is the substitution of the minister of worship for the civil registrar (Articles 8–13 of the law and Articles 25–28 of the Royal Decree; cf. Article 122 of the war law regarding proxy marriages).
Admitted cults are also, though to a lesser extent than the Catholic religion, protected under criminal law. The Penal Code, while not punishing the abstract vilification of an admitted cult, does punish anyone who publicly offends one of the admitted cults by vilifying those who profess it; anyone who, during religious functions performed by a minister of worship, or in a place intended for worship, or in a public place or open to the public, offends one of the admitted cults by vilifying objects of worship or consecrated to worship or necessarily destined for the practice of worship; and anyone who prevents or disturbs the practice of functions, ceremonies, or religious practices conducted with the assistance of a minister of worship, or in a place intended for worship, or in a public place or open to the public. The penalties established for these offenses are considerably lower than those for the same acts committed against the Catholic religion (Articles 403–406 of the Penal Code).
It is also held that the usurpation of the ecclesiastical habit proper to a minister of an admitted cult falls under the provisions of Article 498 of the Penal Code.
Two other important provisions, although they do not strictly pertain to non-Catholic cults as such, but rather to all citizens in terms of their profession of faith, are also found in the aforementioned law on non-Catholic cults. One is contained in article 4 of the law, according to which "difference of cult does not constitute an exception to the enjoyment of civil and political rights and to eligibility for civil and military offices." This principle, already present in the law of 19 June 1848, no. 735, reaffirms the equality of citizens before the law, regardless of the religion they profess; and it has been reproduced in the new Constitution, which in article 3 provides: "All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction... of religion."
The other norm is that of article 5 of the aforementioned law on non-Catholic cults, which states: "discussion on religious matters is fully free," reproducing a provision that was contained in article 2, paragraph four, of the Law of Guarantees.
These principles have been considerably expanded in the new Constitution, which, after implicitly proclaiming in article 7 that the Catholic religion is the religion of the State, adds moreover in article 8 that "all religious denominations are equally free before the law," and that "religious denominations other than the Catholic have the right to organize themselves according to their own statutes, provided that they do not conflict with the Italian legal system." The same Constitution then states that "all have the right to freely profess their religious faith in any individual or associated form, to propagate it, and to exercise worship in private or in public, provided that it does not involve rites contrary to public morals" (art. 19). No mention is made any longer of "principles" or of public order.
Moreover, the third paragraph of article 8 of the Constitution introduces a new principle into the Italian legal system by imposing on the legislator (who previously had the faculty, not the obligation) to regulate the relations of non-Catholic denominations with the State "by law on the basis of agreement with the relevant representatives."