CULTS PERMITTED. - Under this designation, Italian legislation from June 1929 until 1943 (and exceptionally even later: cf. decree-laws of 7 June 1946 no. 581 and 30 May 1947 no. 604) designated the cults, other than the Catholic religion, whose exercise was admitted in Italy.
Although art. 1 of the Italian Statute of 1848 declared that the Catholic religion is the sole religion of the State and that the other cults are merely tolerated, in practice Italian legislation prior to the Concordat had come to sanction an almost complete parity of all cults before the State. With the Conciliation things changed in part.
Having confirmed in art. 1 of the Lateran Treaty the principle that the sole religion of the State is the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion, a specific law (24 June 1929, no. 1159) regulated the juridical position of the other cults, which in that very law were for the first time called a.c. [admitted cults].
Not all cults other than the Catholic religion, however, were admitted, but only those that did not profess principles and did not follow rites contrary to public order and good morals (art. 1 of the aforementioned law).
It likewise established that the exercise, even public, of such cults is free (ibid.). However, as the Minister of Justice explained in his report, "the permission granted to the followers of non-Catholic cults freely to devote themselves to religious practices according to their own convictions does not mean indifference of the State in religious matters, nor still less adherence to the doctrines of such cults. It is instead the pure and simple consequence of the general principle of public law that every activity which is not in conflict with the fundamental requirements of society and of the State must be held lawful, and as such permitted and protected by law. The State, that is, while professing the Catholic religion, which is the religion of almost the totality of Italians, consents to, permits, admits, and therefore also protects the exercise of the other cults, when no harm derives from it to the essential principles that govern the life of the State."
For the public exercise of the a.c., the faithful of each cult may have their own temple or oratory, whose opening is subject to prior governmental authorization. In these buildings open for worship the respective faithful may freely hold public meetings for the performance of religious ceremonies or other acts of worship, on condition that the meeting be presided over or authorized by a minister of worship whose appointment has been approved by the government (arts. 1-2 of the Royal Decree of 28 Feb. 1930, no. 289).
The ministers of the a.c. may be authorized to frequent places of care or retreat in order to provide religious assistance to the inmates who request it. The authorization is given by the person in charge of the administrative direction of the place of care or retreat, and must indicate the procedures and precautions with which the assistance is to be provided (art. 5 of the cited Royal Decree).
The ministers of the a.c. may be authorized to provide religious assistance to those interned in preventive or penal institutions, whenever they are requested to do so by the internees or by their family members or by those who have the legal guardianship of them, in observance of the norms contained in the special regulations for said institutions (art. 6 of the Royal Decree).
In the event of mobilization of the armed forces of the State, the military authority to which the supreme direction of military operations has been entrusted may authorize ministers of worship, whose appointment has been approved, to exercise religious assistance for non-Catholic military personnel; the same authority establishes the norms and precautions with which such assistance may be exercised (art. 8 of the Royal Decree).
Various norms, moreover, analogous to those established for Catholic ecclesiastical bodies, are established for the juridical recognition (for civil purposes) and for the activity of the bodies and institutes of the a.c.; for the equating, for tax purposes, of the purpose of worship with those of charity and instruction; and for the deferment of or exemption from military service in favor of ministers of worship or of persons destined to become such (arts. 7, 9 and 12 of the cited Royal Decree, art. 632 of the regulation approved by Royal Decree of 3 Apr. 1942, no. 1133, for the students of certain Protestant theological faculties).
As regards religious instruction in public schools, in order to avoid non-Catholics being compelled to attend the courses of Catholic religion, it is established that parents, or those who take their place, may request for their children exemption from attending the aforesaid courses. And in certain cases, when the number of pupils justifies it and the temple cannot be used for the purpose, fathers of families professing a non-Catholic cult may obtain that some school premises be placed at their disposal for the religious education of their children, with the appropriate precautions (art. 23 of the Royal Decree).
Also as regards the celebration of marriage, certain special norms are established for non-Catholics; in fact, marriage celebrated before any of the ministers of the a.c., whose appointment has been approved, produces, from the day of celebration, the same effects as marriage celebrated before the civil registrar, provided that the minister of worship has been duly authorized by the competent civil registrar, and provided that the marriage record is regularly transcribed in the civil status registers (of other minor formalities, also essential, it would be too lengthy to speak). This marriage, however, unlike that celebrated before a Catholic priest (which is regulated by canon law), is, for the State, entirely regulated by civil law; and to it therefore apply, also as regards nullity and dissolution, all the provisions established for marriage celebrated before the civil registrar. There is therefore only one difference between purely civil marriage and non-Catholic marriage: the substitution of the minister of worship for the civil registrar (arts. 8-13 of the law and arts. 25-28 of the Royal Decree; cf. art. 122 of the law of war, for marriage by proxy).
The a.c. are also, although to a lesser extent than the Catholic religion, protected under criminal law. The penal code in fact, although it does not punish the abstract vilification of an a.c., does punish anyone who publicly offends one of the a.c. by vilifying those who profess it; anyone who on the occasion of religious functions performed by a minister of worship, or in a place destined for worship, or in a public place or place open to the public, offends one of the a.c. by vilifying things that form the object of worship or are consecrated to worship, or are necessarily destined for the exercise of worship; anyone who impedes or disturbs the exercise of religious functions, ceremonies or practices which are carried out with the assistance of a minister of worship, or in a place destined for worship, or in a public place or place open to the public. The penalties established for these crimes are somewhat lower than those established for whoever commits the same acts against the Catholic religion (arts. 403-406 of the Penal Code).
It is also held that the usurpation of the ecclesiastical habit proper to an a.c. falls under the provision of art. 498 of the Penal Code.
Two other important provisions, although they do not strictly speaking concern non-Catholic cults, but rather all citizens from the point of view of their profession of faith, are also found in the already cited law on admitted cults. One is contained in art. 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, whatever the religion they profess; and it was reproduced in the new Constitution, which provides in art. 3: "All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction... of religion."
The other norm is that of art. 5 of the aforementioned law on admitted cults, which provides: "discussion on religious matters is fully free," reproducing a provision that was contained in art. 2, fourth paragraph, of the Law of Guarantees.
These principles were considerably broadened in the new Constitution, which, after having implicitly proclaimed in art. 7 that the Catholic religion is the religion of the State, adds moreover in art. 8 that "all religious confessions are equally free before the law," and that "religious confessions other than the Catholic one have the right to organize themselves according to their own statutes, provided that these do not conflict with the Italian legal order." The same Constitution further affirms that "all have the right to profess freely their own religious faith in any form, individual or associated, to propagate it and to exercise its worship in private or in public, provided that it does not involve rites contrary to good morals" (art. 19). There is no longer any mention of "principles" or of public order.
Furthermore, the third paragraph of art. 8 of the Constitution introduces a new principle into the Italian legal order by imposing on the legislator (who previously had the faculty, not the obligation) the duty to regulate the relations of non-Catholic confessions with the State "by law on the basis of an agreement with their respective representatives."
Bibliography3 works
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