Civil unions and political divisions

Catholic church plays today a different role in the Italian political system with respect to the past. For about half a century, since the post-war period, it was represented in the political scene by Christian Democratic party (DC). Delegation and collateralism have characterised this phase. But in the beginning of Nineties, with the demise of the first republic and the collapse othe the DC, Catholic church embarked on a new public presence and on a renovated political representation strategy. Once Catholic church went beyond the collateralism strategy it has become an “extra-parliamentarian” actor. By means CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference) and its President, Cardinal Ruini, Catholic church has followed a neutrality strategy from the parties and from political alliances. It has played its game on the political scenario as a lobby, directly, without any intermediary. In other words, its political representation has moved <<form the party to the pulpit>>. Over the last few years this political scenario has been complicated by the breaking into the public debate of the ethical issues. The so called bio-politics; the life as moral value, is now in the core of the political agenda, as a new frontier of the social question. This means that stem cells, medically assisted fertilization, abortion, RU486 pill, “biological will”, euthanasia, cloning together with other social issues, like family first of all, become arguments where politics and in particular Catholics MPs have to lay down the law. This work aims to give an answer to thi issue. A case study is analysed: the draft law on de facto couple (Dico).