Divided Churches & Theo-cons

There’s definitely something going on with the Church, both the Anglican and the Catholic Church. While representatives of the Anglican Church showed their muscles on the adoption row in the UK, the Catholic hierarchy has been vehemently against the proposal going through the Italian Parliament for an equivalent of civil partnerships that would include heterosexual couples.
In the Anglican world, liberal Episcopalians have been threatened to be chucked out of the Church, whilst in Italy, liberal catholics have appealed to the Church not to exercise such an overbearing interference in the affairs of the state.

The internal politics of the Anglican Church is very interesting. By the looks of it, Dr Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria is aiming to be leader of the ‘Global South’ province and is doing his best to rock the boat. Giles Fraser comments, in the Guardian, that:

“for hard-core evangelicals, this manufactured crisis is a golden opportunity to create new rules to oust the progressive voice from the church, perhaps even to crown Archbishop Peter Akinola as, de facto, the new Anglican pope.”

Was the adoption row an opportunity for the Archbishop of Canterbury to show strength in front of the danger of a coup? If it was, it failed. The ‘Global South’ have threatened to boycott Dr Sentamu’s participation at the summit in Tanzania (organised to ‘heal the wounds’ between the conservatives and the liberals!).
The summit's ‘covenant’ may avert a schism, which is very useful in a globalised world where numbers count, but the protagonists might change. Talking of numbers, what about conservative Anglicans joining the 1 billion Roman Catholics? It sounds extremely unlikely given that, as the Times reminds us,

"the Anglican Communion is not a single Church demanding adherence to a disciplined codex of canon law. It is a fellowship of 38 provinces, each with its own prayer book, traditions and legal structure, bound together only by bonds of trust and fellowship."

It's a tactic in an extremely hard-fought campaign.

Meanwhile, back in Italy, Cardinal Ruini has launched a crusade against the Dico, (civil partnerships). Going back 60 years, Ruini has threatened a 'Nota', an injunction on Catholic MP's to follow the Church's policy on the issue. Some Catholic MPs, however, have already spoken against this meddling of (Vatican) 'Rome' with (the Italian State's) 'Rome'. Mediation is taking place although 60 Left-of-Centre MPs have already signed a petition in favour of the law. On the 'religious front', the vice-president of CEI (Conferenza Episcopale Italiana), Monsignor Plotti, commented that 'there was no need of a crusade' and that Ruini should listen to the bishops instead of going alone.
The liberal wing represented now by Cardinal Tettamanzi (after Cardinal Martini moved to Jerusalem) called for 'being close' to those who are cohabiting and avoiding radicalisation.
There is a 'concordat' in Italy between the State and the Catholic Church. For some the concordat has been broken due to the constant interferences of the Vatican. If Ruini moves on to impose a 'non possumus' and ask Catholic MPs to vote down the law, it would breach the concordat and split the Church and the country.

Both hierarchies seem to be trampling upon other theologies within their own churches and disregarding completely those who are not religious. The Italian case seems to suggest that the Church leaders want us to abandon the principle of ‘freedom of religion’. If the State were to grant fewer rights to the non-religious (and the 'liberal' religious), who choose to cohabit instead of getting married, it would impose a religious theology and thus infringe the principle of freedom of religion and conscience. The theo-cons are at work again and are threatening our rights and freedoms, those very rights and freedoms the Judeo-Christian tradition has given us.

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