Fifty years after the conference in which Law and Religion Scholars held a dialogue with Constitutional Scholars in Siena, central issues of that discussion are recalled, and those of a future debate are envisaged, with the hope that both disciplines might benefit from it
The “Church Mission” in the Concordats after the Vatican Council II
ABSTRACT: The Concordat Policy of the Holy Seat went through an unexpected development after the Vatican Council II. The agreements subscribed over the last decades have indeed engaged with lots of European Countries, and the range expanded to the African and Asia continent. The new geography designed to this agreements also matches with innovations in the structure and content of them. This essay aims to analyze this innovation and its strict connection with the documents of the Vatican Council II, enlightening how this has determined a more theological view of the objectives through which the freedom of the Catholic Church defines and details itself. While the concordats of the first half of the past century accompanied, followed and enlarged the trajectory of the Church rights towards spiritualization, this new phase is, indeed, characterized by a theological placement of the interests, whose freedom is indeed the object of the protections granted by the Concordats, which are briefly expressed by the lemma “Church Mission”, found in the first articles of the Concordats. This lemma, in the conciliar texts, is characterized not only by a theological dimension, but also by its direct connection with religious freedom.
Sommario: 1. Una premessa - 2. I precedenti e il contesto dottrinale - 3. I documenti conciliari - 4. La “missione della chiesa” negli accordi concordatari tra XX° e XXI° secolo - 5. Per qualche annotazione conclusiva.
La segregazione etnico-religiosa nel sistema educativo in Irlanda del Nord *
Ethnic-religious segregation in the education system of Northern Ireland *
ABSTRACT: After many years of conflict, Northern Ireland still appears today as a deeply divided society that bears the marks of centuries of ethnic hostility with a strong religious connotation. The context in which, more than any other, the segregationist tension between the two communities, Protestant and Catholic, is still clearly perceivable is the education system, which is characterized by a significant separation of students according to their religious affiliation. The paper aims at reconstructing the origins and outlining the focal points of such an education system, which was recently brought to the attention of the Northern Ireland Supreme Court, with reference to discrimination against students belonging to other religions or beliefs.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Le origini del conflitto politico-religioso - 3. Le persistenti difficoltà politiche e le ricadute sui rapporti interconfessionali - 4. La segregazione scolastica - 5. Profili di discriminazione religiosa nell’accesso alla scuola - 6. La discriminazione nell’insegnamento della religione: la recente pronuncia della High Court of Justice of Northern Ireland - 7. Conclusioni.
ABSTRACT: The current article analyzes the inextricable and instrumental link between intangible religious heritage and tangible religious heritage. More specifically, UNESCO’s nomination processes are examined in order to investigate the evolution and the approach of national and global institutions to intangible religious heritage. Rituals, architectural techniques of constructions and several UNESCO’s nomination dossiers of religious towns are used to shed a light on problematic aspects. Among them, we should wonder if intangible religious heritage underwent a process of political “instrumentalization”, “scientificization” and “objectivization”: which are the consequences of this institutional activity?
SUMMARY: 1. Introduction - 2. Intangible Heritage and Legal Framework - 3. The National Dimension of UNESCO’s Nomination Processes - 4. The Global Dimension of UNESCO’s Nomination Processes - 5. Intangible Religious Heritage and Criticalities: Is There a Political Instrumentality? - 6. Architectural Techniques of Construction: Uncharted Aspects and Legal Issues - 7. Architectural Techniques of Construction and UNESCO - 8. Rituals: Uncharted Aspects and Legal Issues - 9. Rituals and UNESCO - 10. Conclusions.
The Messina genesis of the dual vocation of Giorgio La Pira, a scholar of Roman law and Venerable of the Catholic Church
ABSTRACT: In the same Messina environment in which the religious conversion of the young La Pira grew, his vocation as a historian of Romanity was also defined as being able to gather the typical unity profile with respect for the diversity of faiths and Mediterranean cultures. Therefore, it is not surprising that Pope Francis, once the "Holy Mayor of Florence" was proclaimed Venerable, agreed with him in recognising the Mediterranean as a place of communication between different worlds.
1 - Un rigoroso pensatore teutonico, Ludwig Wittgenstein, della cui dottrina, pur nel dissenso, non può non farsi carico ogni serio ambito di studi, ha enunciato, fra gli altri, due asserti piuttosto allarmanti in ordine a quanto ci si prefigge di trattare, e cioè: a) che il passato non ci direbbe molto del presente e b) che quando non si ha una conoscenza logico-empirica, cioè fondata sull’esperienza sensibile, sarebbe meglio tacere. (continua)
Integral ecological transition and religious discrimination of migrant women in the Mediterranean
SOMMARIO: 1. Ecologia integrale e parità di genere - 2. Flussi migratori nel Mediterraneo e discriminazioni religiose femminili - 3. Interventi europei di collaborazione interculturale nel Mare nostrum - 4. Verso un’unica polis euromediterranea?
ABSTRACT: In this essay it is hoped that the current development model will be overcome, because it is highly polluting and unfair from a socio-economic point of view, based as it is on competition and prevarication, the result of male hegemony in decision-making bodies and therefore discriminating for weaker and for women. These, on the other hand, must guide an integral ecological transition, because they are more inclined to the custody of creation and future generations, as well as to the improvement of the general living conditions of society, through sharing and dialogue, rather than with imposition and hard confrontation, as Pope Francis claims, in the encyclical Laudato si'. In particular, the ecological and social degradation caused by the androcentric system has increased the flows of migrants so-called environmental, which cross the Mediterranean Sea undergoing abuse and discrimination including religious ones. Above all, Muslim migrant women are more vulnerable also due to the misogynistic cultural heritage resulting from an erroneous and obsolete interpretation of the Koranic texts. Europe can be more involved in the fight against the negative consequences of climate change and discrimination against migrants, implementing policies inspired by sustainable development and intercultural solidarity, also with a view to fostering the ambitious and suggestive attempt to reach a integrated Euro-Mediterranean area.
SOMMARIO: 1. Osservazioni propedeutiche: la crescente rilevanza di un approccio metodologicamente propenso alla riconversione ambientale e alla solidarietà sociale - 2. Caratteristiche generali idonee a proporre le dottrine buddhiste come case study di precipua significatività - 3. Le tracce di una riflessione culturalmente orientata: l’eredità dei maestri canonici - 4. Gli insegnamenti del Buddha come principi di una taumaturgia giuridica interculturale - 5. L’astensione curativa: una nozione rafforzata di condotte omissive - 6. Un bilancio casistico: materiali di studio sui rapporti tra il buddhismo e le istituzioni statali - 7. Possibile conclusione a partire dallo stato dell’arte: il buddhismo tra dottrina, rito e habitus.
Sustainability and environmental transition: the legal Buddhist contribution
ABSTRACT: We are currently experiencing an increasing attention on the economic sustainability and the environmental issues. This process still merely seems a theoretical declaration because its concrete efforts are appearing weak and fragile. The aim of this essay is to underline the possibility of a better comprehension of those sets of problems by studying the spiritual and legal contribution of Buddhism: a not theistic axiology that implies a renewed approach to ecology and economics, able to determine methodological consequences even in the sphere of public law.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. La circolare misteriosa - 3. Sulla presunta “forza normativa” di una circolare - 4. Vedere il proprio nome su una tomba: un problema “giuridicamente irrilevante”? - 5. Il sonno della ragione genera mostri.
About the ‘scarlet letter’: A ‘legally irrelevant’ problem? Some considerations
ABSTRACT: The contribution, stimulated by a rebuttal article, delves into the issue of the unsolicited burial of foetuses; it reconstructs the research work on the Cattin Circular, which founds the moral duty of such burial. The Circular cannot be found at the Ministry of Health itself.
SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. Il caso del Montenegro: identità nazionale e identità religiosa - 3. La costruzione di un’identità nazionale - 4. Prodromi di un divorzio annunciato - 5. Personalità giuridica delle Chiese e patrimonio religioso - 6. Beni culturali contesi - 7. Verso una risoluzione dei contrasti con la Chiesa ortodossa serba? - 8. Patrimonio culturale montenegrino e ruolo delle organizzazioni internazionali - 9. Conclusioni.
Religious freedom, cultural heritage and identity: the case of Montenegro
ABSTRACT: With the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, the Balkan populations found themselves having to face the necessity of replacing their common Slavic origins with national identities that found a solid point of reference in religion. The cultural heritage, at first common thanks to Tito's unifying work, became again the heritage of the single nationalities and the object of ethnic-local identity claims. In this situation, the anchorage to cultural heritage and the particular care taken by governments to claim its management and control, become instruments of identity whose effects inevitably reverberate on the delicate balance between the religious communities present in the different territories. The case of Montenegro shows the complicated relationship between the protection of cultural heritage, national identities and religious belonging to the different components of Orthodoxy, each of which claims exclusive and unique ownership over their respective territories, thus contributing to rewrite the contents of cultural heritage, reducing it to an increasingly local dimension. Thanks to the work of international organizations such as UNESCO with "its" world heritage and the Council of Europe, which is working to promote diversity and dialogue in the field of cultural heritage, this regains its dignity, respecting the citizens' feelings and their quality of life.
SOMMARIO: 1. Introduzione: per una transizione ecologica integrale - 2. La varietà dei modelli eco-culturali dei soggetti del pluralismo etico-religioso - 3. Le associazioni animaliste e lo stile di vita vegano - 4. Le comunità smart dell’economia collaborativa sostenibile - 5. Le imprese socialmente responsabili - 6. Le “società benefit” - 7. I domini collettivi e le cooperative di comunità nella gestione dei beni comuni - 8. La tutela dei siti naturali d’interesse culturale - 9. Le organizzazioni agresti di impegno sociale - 10. Il sostegno finanziario delle banche etiche allo sviluppo sostenibile - 11. Conclusione: un ulteriore impegno per l’ecclesiasticista.
Integral ecology and ethical-religious pluralism
ABSTRACT: The contribution intends to attest the interest for the scholar of ecclesiastical law for the phenomenon of ecological transition, in which some confessional bodies, as well as groups, associations and communities of people who are differently oriented from the ethical-cultural point of view, driven by a resilience movement induced by the social and environmental crisis, they are involved in various ways. They, in pursuing what Pope Francis defined, in the encyclical Laudato si', “integral ecology”, combine attention to the protection of creation and the expression of the personality of man, through the implementation of initiatives based on a new development model.