Contenuti per la categoria: Church autonomy

SOMMARIO: 1. Sulla nozione di religione, confessione, setta - 2. La Chiesa di Scientology e il suo inquadramento - 3. Problematiche giurisprudenziali nel riconoscimento di Scientology - 4. La configurazione del reati di associazione per delinquere - 5. Il plagio e l’abus de faiblesse - 6. I movimenti “anti-sette”. Considerazioni conclusive.

Scientology. Religious narrative and legal rules

ABSTRACT: Scientology is an exemplary case, in the definition of "religious confession", both because it is a movement of rupture with respect to the common religious feeling, and because its recognition as confession has taken place, in Italy, following a process that developed, with alternating events, for twenty years, until the final judgment of 2000. It is particularly interesting to reflect on the alleged crimes, which are anomalous if they relate to a religious context, but also on similar trials that have taken place in France and, more recently, in Belgium. In addition, it is important to stress that the three judicial procedures examined were also influenced by two important factors, which were not always explicitly stated in the course of the proceedings: the subject of mental manipulation and the action of anti-cult movements in public debate. If in Italy, plagiarism has been decriminalized by a ruling of the Constitutional Court, in France and Belgium laws have recently been introduced against the abuse of weakness in sectarian movements which, however, have not been recalled in the Scientology trials. Very dangerous is, moreover, the public action of the anti cult movements that can act as a sounding board of news not always reliable and that, often, are financed with public money. All these considerations offer interesting insights into the level of democratic secularism and the protection of religious freedom.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. La confessione dei Testimoni di Geova e il nodo dei principi religiosi tra politica e diritto - 3. Il nodo dell’intesa. Le tappe del negoziato - 4. L’impasse e le difficili vie d’uscita.

On the State-Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses agreement

ABSTRACT: To date, the State-Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses agreement is waiting to complete the procedure within the meaning of article 8, paragraph 3, of the Italian Constitution. The latest statements by the government refer to the need for further information on health matters, evoking the issue of refusal of blood transfusion treatments. On a legal level, there are difficulties in overcoming the impasse in which the agreement is, also because there isn't a legislative discipline of the procedure prefigured in the article 8 of the Constitution; furthermore the statements made in 2016 by the Constitutional Court on the political nature of the government's choices regarding the agreements can be an obstacle. The paper deals with these points, also taking into account the application to the ECHR presented by the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses against the Italian Republic.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. L’etica del lavoro - 3. I simboli identitari - 4. Il gurdwara come risorsa sociale - 5. Il kirpan - 6. Il valore di un riconoscimento.

Sikhs, Calvinists in the Po Valley

ABSTRACT: Sikhs are an important component of the New Religious Pluralism (NRP) that, especially due to the migratory flows of last decades, we record in Italy today. Many Sikh workers are employed in the dairy farming sector and, at least in the North of the country, they appear to be well integrated. This process has been facilitated by strict work ethics grounded in their theology. Nevertheless, to date the Sikh community has not been legally recognized as a religious body. Efforts by Sikh representatives to adopt a kirpan (ritual dagger) compatible with Italian law have not produced the desired results. However, there is still an urgent need for legal recognition of a faith community that has achieved important and successful integration processes in just a few decades.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Il complesso mondo protestante in Italia - 3. Come pensano le istituzioni - 4. Conclusione.

The new Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches in Italy, homeless, exposed to reasonable discrimination

ABSTRACT: The religious geography in Italy is changing. It is not only Islam, and the growth of the parishes of the various Orthodox Churches, that makes the religious panorama more lively. The spread of many and different Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches represent a sign of renewed vitality for the historical minority Churches that refer to the Reformation present for a long time. These new Churches have been able to rely on the hospitality offered by the various Protestant Churches. Another part, perhaps the most substantial, had to wander from one place to another, more or less precarious or resulting, to be able to offer their faithful a religious service worthy of the name. The article focuses on these homeless Churches exposed to the double contingency of being, on the one hand, more easily the target of reasonable discrimination by Regions and local authorities and, for another, without sufficient voice of the many small communities of believers. The public institutions continue to represent the socio-religious reality following the Ptolemaic scheme that considers the existence of a majority religion, Catholicism, versus small religious minorities, without asking whether this perspective can manage the diversity of increasing religious diversities.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Il frammentato quadro normativo in materia di LGBT rights - 3. Il caso Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia - 4. L’impatto della pronunzia Bostock sulle istituzioni religiose - 5. La tutela offerta dal Title VII all’esercizio della libertà religiosa - 6. La Section 702(a) del Title VII e le questioni interpretative irrisolte - 7. Nuove letture giurisprudenziali della Section 702(a) - 8. L’interazione fra esenzioni religiose ex Section 702(a) e sex discrimination: possibili futuri scenari alla luce del caso Bostock - 9. La specificità delle istituzioni impegnate nel settore dell’istruzione - 10. La ministerial exception e i limiti della sua applicabilità - 11. Il RFRA - 12. I rischi derivanti da un utilizzo over-expansive del RFRA - 13. La Free Exercise Clause - 14. Le vie percorribili per recepire nuove prospettive valoriali - 15. Il mancato intervento del Congresso - 16. Principio di non discriminazione ed esercizio della libertà religiosa: un binomio incompatibile? - 17. L’esempio della legislazione sui same-sex marriages - 18. La tutela dell’istituzionalismo religioso e i suoi “ragionevoli” limiti - 19. Conclusioni.

The interplay between religious exemptions and LGBT rights in the workplace: new judicial trajectories at the crossroads of plural narratives

ABSTRACT: A recent U.S. Supreme Court judgement found that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act covers discriminations founded on gender identity and sexual orientation. The present paper analyses the effect of this judgement on the exercise of religious freedom of faith-based organizations and investigates the possibility of finding ways to reconcile competing interests.

SOMMARIO: 1. Sviluppo tecnologico, internet e dinamiche interculturali - 2. I nuovi mezzi di comunicazione sociale nel magistero della Chiesa cattolica - 3. Strategie confessionali e prospettive interculturali: il caso delle app religiose - 4. Il download di una app tra tutela della privacy e sicurezza sociale.

Internet, Cultures, Religions. Some insights for an intercultural web.

ABSTRACT: The article aims to investigate the relationship between the Internet and religions. Technological evolution has produced important consequences on society and relationships between people, also involving religious denominations. The latter have defined new ways of professing and excercizing their belief: creation of Christian communities on line, Internet as window of knowledge of monastic life or proselytizing tools, propaganda through religious videogames, app for smartphones and tablets. Such tools can contribute to the formation of an intercultural web. The use of the Internet and of modern technologies questions jurists about the protection of sensitive data of religious interest and of social security. Downloading an app on smatphones and tablets allows the provider to access even the user’s sensitive data, including their religious affiliation. This requires the intervention of Italian Data Protection Authority, whose task is to check whether the processing of sensitive data is carried out in compliance with the applicable regulations. The improper use of the Internet can also involve the protection of social security, through the denigration of a particularly weak social group and as a tool of spreading and inciting hatred (hate speech). The legislator is therefore called upon to define the sanctioning capacity of the existing legal systems.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Libertà di culto e pandemia - 3. Logica deontica e bilancia costituzionale - 4. Le critiche agli interventi governativi - 5. Logica giuscostituzionale - 6. Libertas ecclesiae e pandemia - 7. Conclusioni e prospettive.

Constitution and Religion in Italy in a Time of Pandemic

ABSTRACT: In the first half of 2020, in Italy the coronavirus (Covid-19) has spread quickly, putting the country in an unprecedented emergency. From here stemmed the Government’s measures, which were (and are) without parallel in the history of the Italian State. These measures have led to an animated debate, especially when associated to the limitations imposed on the public liturgical life of the Catholic Church. That was also incorporated into the discussion concerning the long-standing principle-method of bilateralism, as established in Articles 7.2 and 8.3 of the Italian Constitution. With this article the Author analyses this debate in the light of the constitutional duty to protect human health, in the individual and collective sense of the terms.

SOMMARIO: 1. Stati a identità debole e rapporti con le confessioni religiose - 2. Il cratere balcanico - 3. La Bosnia Erzegovina terreno di confronto identitario e di rifiuto dell’autocefalia - 4. Un rapporto sinfonico contestato: il Montenegro - 5. Le denominazioni contese: la Macedonia del Nord - 6. L’Ucraina alla ricerca dell’identità - 7. Autonomia confessionale e autocefalia: per una nuova nozione di territorio canonico.

… Is seeking for autocephaly, which is so precious!/ They go in search of autocephaly- so precious! / Of autocephalous they journey: how dear it is!

ABSTRACT: The "Weak States" of the Balkans born from the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the USSR seek legitimacy and struggle to strengthen their national identity. This is currently happening through the recognition of autocephaly to their Orthodox Churches in order to build on the symphonic and stable relationship between State and Churches. The article analyzes the status of relations between the state entities of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Ukraine. In this perspective, the conflict between different religious designations claiming to be represented as identity representations before the State is highlighted. Additionally, the conflicts within the Orthodox pae granting the tomos to recognize autocephaly are explored.

SOMMARIO: 1. Israele, uno Stato ‘ebraico’ e multiculturale? - 2. Il sistema degli statuti personali e la tutela delle relazioni familiari - 3. Matrimoni, divorzi e Corti religiose - 4. Pluralismo, multiconfessionismo e dinamiche demografiche. Prime conclusioni e prospettive di ricerca.

Forms and practices of the religious pluralism in the State of Israel. The Ottoman inheritance and the protection of family relationships.

ABSTRACT: The essay aims to explore, also in a historical perspective, the general characteristics, peculiarities and limits of the differentiated protection of family relationships in force in the legal system of (State of Israel), still based on the millet system. It allows the application of the personal statutes of the various ethnic-religious communities (Jewish, Muslim, Druze, Christian) present on the territory, not only to regulate the legal institutions typical of family law - especially marriage and divorce -, but also for the resolution of disputes on the matter that are devolved to the jurisdiction of the religious Courts of several religions. In examining the effectiveness and functionality of this model of religious and cultural pluralism, the study highlights the delicate problems of relevance and coexistence of the different religious normative complexes in the Israeli state system.

SOMMARIO: 1. Gli interventi contro i Testimoni di Geova nella Federazione Russa - 2. La presenza storica dei Testimoni di Geova nel Paese - 3. La libertà religiosa nella normativa dell’Unione Sovietica - 4. Le leggi sulla libertà di coscienza degli anni ’90 - 5. La legislazione “anti estremismo” e antiterrorismo - 6. Considerazioni conclusive.

“Anti-extremism” Legislation and Religious Freedom in the Russian Federation. The case of Jehovah's Witnesses

ABSTRACT: The application of "anti-extremism" legislation to minority religious groups in the Russian Federation has led to a progressive institutional tightening of the persecution and heavy discrimination, especially against Jehovah's Witnesses. Although many of these legislative instruments have existed for over a decade, the Russian government has only recently begun to use them in sustained campaigns designed to punish or exclude "non-traditional" religions and movements. In the specific case of Jehovah's Witnesses, these measures have taken on the purpose of delegitimising an entire community, solely because of the religious faith being persecuted, with accusations ranging from missionary activity to offending the religious feelings of believers. Overall, these interventions are part of a wider process of ideological control over society, aimed at curbing, if not stifling, the forces of political and religious dissent. It is well known that secularism is based on two fundamental principles: the inviolability of human rights, which constitute the prodrome of political power and therefore of the State, and, secondly, the importance of a culture and institutions that guarantee the effectiveness of pluralism. The analysis of the Russian history is, in this sense, an important perspective because it calls into question the European model of recognition and guarantee of religious pluralism.