Pope criticised for divorce appeal

Italians were largely unfavourable to the Pope's strong comments against divorce

VATICAN CITY -- Italians have taken Pope John Paul to task for strong comments against divorce seen by many as interference in state affairs.

Addressing magistrates on Monday, the Pope urged lawyers in Italy to shun divorce cases because, he said, marriage should be indissoluble and divine law superseded human law.

A poll on Tuesday by the Datamedia research group showed that 87.5 percent of those Italians interviewed disagreed with the Pope, the spiritual leader of about one billion Catholics around the world. Other polls fell into line.

He was criticised from all sides, as groups ranging from women's organisations to politicians of all persuasions weighed in.

"We find it rich that His Holiness, whose religious authority we respect, incites judges and magistrates not to apply the law of the state," said Aitanga Giraldi, equal opportunities council member for the powerful CGIL trades union.

She said laws allowing divorce and abortion had become part of the country's heritage, whether the Pope liked it or not.

The toughest criticism came from leftist parties. "I am stupefied by this interference in the non-clerical principles of the state," Livia Turco, a parliamentarian from Italy's largest leftist party, the Democrats of the Left told Reuters.

Even some political Catholic leaders also distanced themselves from the Pope's comments.

"While I think conscientious objection in general should be respected and broadened, I don't think a judge can shrink from the duties of his office," Marco Follini, head of the small centrist CCD party, told La Repubblica newspaper.

Alessandra Mussolini said that saving marriage at all costs is "hypocrisy."

The CCD is one of several so-called "Catholic" parties that rose from the ashes of the defunct Christian Democrats party.

Divorce and abortion have been legal in Italy since the late 1970s and are seen as major conquests for women's rights in a country where they were not allowed to vote until 1946.

Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and a right-wing parliamentarian, responded by saying that the idea of saving marriage at all costs was "hypocrisy."

"Divorce, at times, is a salvation because it interrupts a spiral of hate and terror even for children," she said.

The 81-year-old Pope has often expressed his contempt for abortion, calling on Catholic doctors to reject the practice. But on that issue Italians have been more accommodating, acknowledging its emotionally charged character.

Commentators said it was slightly unusual that the response to the Pope's words on divorce was largely unfavourable because many Italians have come to be less publicly critical of the Pope, in what is seen as a sympathy factor as he grows older and frailer.