The anti-gender movement in Italy: Catholic participation between electoral and protest politics

ABSTRACT

Between 2013 and 2016, a broad range of Catholic groups following pro-life and pro-family agendas has conducted a large anti-gender campaign, whose main result was the definition of a Catholic anti-gender movement in Italy. The anti-gender movement, opposed to the approval of the bill on civil unions for same-sex couples and the introduction of gender education programs in schools, has grown in popularity, becoming a source of participation and protest for politically committed Catholic and social conservative actors. The emergence and consolidation of the movement has marked a new phase of political Catholicism characterized, on the one hand, by an intensification of protest and lobbying activities in the public and political arenas and, on the other, by a descent into the electoral arena of a part of the movement with the constitution of an autonomous political subject, the People of the Family party. This article proposes to analyze the dynamics of politicization of the anti-gender cause, with the aim of advancing the argument that long-lasting dilemmas are still affecting Catholic politics concerning the best strategies to combine religious coherence, political representation and consensus for the Italian Catholic militancy in an increasingly complex post-secular society.

KEYWORDS:

• Social movements
• parties
• gender
• religion
• politics
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anna Lavizzari is a research fellow at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Department of Political and Social Sciences, in Florence, where she is part of the COSMOS (Centre on Social Movement Studies) research team. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Kent (2017, with a thesis on contentious politics between the LGBTQ movement and the Catholic countermovement in Italy). She is currently part of the Italian team within the H2020 European project ‘EURYKA – Reinventing Democracy in Europe: Youth Doing Politics in Times of Increasing Inequalities’. Previously, she conducted different research projects on youth and intersectional identities, and gender issues across Europe.

Massimo Prearo is a research fellow at the University of Verona, Department of Humanities. He gained a PhD in Political Studies at the EHESS (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) in Paris. He is the author of different monographs, among which Le moment politique de l’homosexualité. Mouvements, identités et communautés en France (PUL, Lyon, 2014) and La fabbrica dell’orgoglio. Una genealogia dei movimenti LGBT (ETS, Pisa, 2015). He is also the editor of the volume Politiche dell’orgoglio. Sessualità, soggettività e movimenti sociali (ETS, Pisa, 2015). The latest publication is La croisade ‘anti-genre’. Du Vatican aux manifs pour tous (Textuel, Paris, 2017) co-authored by Sara Garbagnoli.

ORCID

Anna Lavizzari http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7437-4142

Notes

1 Statement concerning the interpretation of the term “gender”, 15 September 1995 http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/archivio/documents/rc_seg-st_19950915_conferenza-pechino-genero_sp.html.

2 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Doctrinal Note to Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life, Rome, Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 24 November 2002.

3 The first Family Day, in 2007, was organized in opposition to the DICO law.

4 Senate Act n. 14 XVII Legislature. The bill passed with 372 votes in favor, 51 against, and 99 abstentions.

5 Among these are some members of the Democratic Party who, while supporting the no-gender cause, were repeatedly held up by the movement itself for the inability to represent these values and positions in parliament.

6 Massimo Gandolfini, public lecture, 22 January 2017.

7 Massimo Gandolfini, public lecture, 22 January 2017.

8 In this regard, the ecclesial movement Neocatechumenal Way represents one of the most propulsive forces of the anti-gender movement, as well as the most important resource of activists and Catholic militants.

9 We refer to the position preached by Julian Carron during the Rimini Meeting 2016 of Comunione e Liberazione, where he took distance from the Family Day initative.

10 Massimo Gandolfini, public lecture, 22 January 2017.

11 Fabio Torriero, National Assembly of the People of the Family, 28 January 2017.

12 Gianfranco Amato, National Assembly of the People of the Family.

13 Gianfranco Amato, National Assembly of the People of the Family.

14 Fabio Torriero, National Assembly of the People of the Family, 28 January 2017.

15 Massimo Gandolfini, ‘Five million good reasons’, The Times, 26 June 2017, http://www.tempi.it/cinque-milioni-di-buone-ragioni#.WXCrLNPygWo.

16 Mario Adinolfi, ‘Quick response to Massimo Gandolfini’, Facebook official page of the newspaper La Croce, 26 June 2017.