Contenuti per la categoria: Confessions and religious associations

Family relationships and migrations between law, religions and culture 

ABSTRACT: In recent years, the social and multi-religious evolution of the family has contributed to redefined its morphology, varying its traits through a continuous work of cultural, ethnic and religious relocation. It frequently clashes with resistance typical of an institution that is in some ways still linked to traditional legal paradigms. It is consequently increasingly necessary to acquire technical tools that allow people to govern family relationships in the current “multicolor” context. The essay investigates the possibility of leaving ample space for private autonomy in the regulation of family relationships in the belief that in this way families are provided with flexible tools that conform to their own cultural and religious identity.

The right to religious freedom and its exercise between centralisation and self-goverment. Lights and shadows in the Spanish experience

ABSTRACT: The analysis of the regulation of religious freedom and its exercise in Spain, where a quasi-federal system of territorial distribution of power is in force, highlights the existence of regulatory disparities that cause differences in its exercise, hindering real equality in the enjoyment of this right. The removal of these obstacles requires twofold action. On the one hand, regulatory changes are needed to adapt the regulation of the exercise of religious freedom to the reality of a decentralised territorial model, so as to adapt the exercise of the right to the specific reality of religious diversity in each territory. But, on the other hand, it requires that equality of the basic conditions for the exercise of the right to religious freedom be guaranteed; which, in such a model, must be done through intergovernmental cooperation (in the so-called " Sectoral Conferences ").

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. El desarrollo del derecho de libertad religiosa por la Ley Orgánica de libertad religiosa - 3. La regulación del ejercicio de la libertad religiosa en las comunidades autónomas. ¿Existe cooperación entre el Estado y las CCAA y de estas entre sí que garantice la igualdad en el ejercicio de la libertad religiosa? - 4. Comunidades autónomas y el ejercicio de la libertad religiosa - 5. Instrumentos de cooperación intergubernamental e interadministrativa - 6. Los Acuerdos con rango de ley con las confesiones religiosas en el sistema de fuentes.

Mutual Collaboration in the Service of the Human Person between the Catholic Church and States after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and the Villa Madama Agreements

ABSTRACT: The article examines the ways of expressing the sana cooperatio between the Holy See and the political community in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council and the Villa Madama Accords. It will focus on the its characteristic traits as emerging from the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis and then examine the instruments of cooperatio, in particular the role of the Secretariat of State, the papal nuncios and the concordats.

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Chiesa e comunità politica all’epoca dei tre papi “stranieri” - 2.1 Giovanni Paolo II - 2.2 Benedetto XVI - 2.3 Francesco - 3. Gli strumenti della sana cooperatio.

SUMMARY: 1. Introduction - 2. The SMOM self-qualification as full member of the international community: critical notes - 3. The nature and scope of the international legal subjectivity of SMOM - 4. The non-relevance of the canonical status and the relationship with the Holy See for the international subjectivity of SMOM - 5. Conclusions.

ABSTRACT: The presence of the Order of Malta (acronym SMOM) on the international scene, because of its singularity, has been the subject of debate and discussion among scholars of international law as well as canon law. In fact, the SMOM’s juridical subjection to the Holy See because of its nature as a Catholic Religious Institute is a critical point under the traditional international legal theory that seems to be inconsistent with the Order’s international subjectivity. The aim of this study is to point out that, using a broad and modern notion of international subjectivity, there is no incompatibility between the canonical nature of the Order of Malta and its membership in the international community.

SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione - 2. Alle radici del pluralismo della disparità - 3. Le definizioni a contrario - 4. Le minoranze nel sentiero del principio di laicità - 5. Le minoranze religiose alle prese con il genus e la species della laicità - 6. La rilevanza legale delle minoranze religiose - 7. L’autonomia delle confessioni diverse - 8. Le diseconomie esterne del diritto comune delle intese - 9. Come ridurre le diseconomie esterne negative - 10. Conclusioni e prospettive.

The Legal Discipline of Minority Religions. The External Diseconomy of Italy’s Favor Religionis

ABSTRACT: This article analyses the State’s legal discipline regulating minority religions, which are part of the current religious pluralism in Italy. Pluralism is not new in the Italian context. Various minority religions have long been part of the national scene and often enjoyed a level of public consideration far superior compared to their numerical consistency. However, today in Italy there are religious organizations that, in the light of the traditional ex parte Ecclesiæ favor religionis and the method of state-church(es) relations, stress some difficulties of constitutional relevance. In particular, these difficulties have increasingly come to be seen in terms of “negative externalities”: while creating privileges for the Catholic Church and few minority denominations, it produces unreasonable discriminations against all other religions. That is particularly the case of legal status of “new” minority religious, made up mainly of immigrants.

SOMMARIO: 1. Teismo/ateismo: l’eredità storica di una presunta dicotomia - 2. La polifonia “in crescendo” del nuovo panorama religioso - 3. Confessione religiosa, esser(lo) o non esser(lo): questo è il dilemma - 4. Associazioni ateiste: minoranze religiose escluse? Osservazioni conclusive.

Are atheists a religious minority? The legal status of atheism in Italy and in some countries of the European Union.

ABSTRACT: “Religion” and “confession” are terms without an established definition in sociology and the legal sciences. The absence of a definition allows us to consider the religious phenomenon in its complexity, including both belief and unbelief. The analysis tries to understand if a common legal discipline is possible for theistic and non-theistic phenomenon. The analysis focuses on the legal status of non-believers minority in Italy and in some countries of the European Union.

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. 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. Premessa - 2. Definizione di Transumanesimo e i suoi principi – 3. Criticità e limiti del Transumanesimo - 4. Considerazioni conclusive.

From homo erectus to homo Deus. Brief reflection on the new scientific-technological religions: Transhumanism

ABSTRACT: The contribution aims to be a brief reflection on a new way of conceiving man and the future of humanity, no longer linked to physical-psychological decay but capable of becoming immortal. The Transhumanists, so called those who share this new ideology, are convinced that, thanks to technological development, by 2030 it will be possible to achieve objectives that today may seem surreal but which will give us, instead of man made of flesh, bones and passions, a cyborg able to think and live like a man but with much more developed and lasting potential.

SUMARIO: 1. Introducción - 2. Régimen jurídico-constitutivo de iglesias, confesiones y comunidades religiosas - 2.1. La legislación específica de iglesias, confesiones y comunidades religiosas - 2.2. ¿Es de aplicación a las entidades religiosas ‘mayores’ la denominada garantía común asociativa? - 3. Régimen jurídico-constitutivo de asociaciones religiosas - 3.1. Antecedentes - 3.2. Problemática jurídica que plantea esta doble regulación normativa - 3.2.1. ¿Qué diferencias existen entre estos dos regímenes jurídicos, aptos en sus respectivos ámbitos de aplicación, en la regulación y constancia registral del fenómeno asociativo-religioso? - 3.2.2. ¿Resulta ajustado a Derecho este régimen diferenciado, o se constituye en inconstitucional por causante de discriminación? - 3.2.3. ¿Es necesario este doble y distinto régimen jurídico-asociativo? - 4. Epílogo.

Associations in the framework of state legal personality of religious organisations in Spain

ABSTRACT: The community dimension of religious freedom entails the existence of Churches, Denominations and Religious communities.  This paper addresses the issue of whether these entities are applied the common associative guarantee of Article 22 of the Spanish Constitution and, if applicable, the Organic Law on the right of association. The conclusion reached is that religious denominations are not legally considered associations of constitutional relevance. The paper also tackles the scope of application of this Organic Law on the right of association to religious ‘associations’ per se. The study notes they have a different legal regime, due to them being subject to this Law exclusively or to the Organic Law on religious freedom.