Challenges to the Catholic Notion of Family and the Responses of the Catholic Church in Italy

This article aims to examine the tensions between religion and the rule of law, focusing on the defense of the Catholic notion of the family in Italy, under Ruini’s and Bagnasco’s chairmanships of the Episcopal Conference of Italy (eci). The first part offers some remarks on the institution of the conference of bishops and the development of its role in Italy, as well as on the Catholic notion of family and the challenges it has faced in the course of the Italian process of secularization. The second part examines the responses of the eci to three state measures: Law no. 40/2004 on medically assisted reproduction; the legislation proposed in 2007 and never enacted on the rights and duties of cohabiting couples; and Law no. 76/2016 on civil unions between homosexual persons and on the legal recognition of cohabitation.