Catholics: a crucial but undecided electorate

As the most populated and wealthy region in the country, Lombardy will play a key role in determining the outcome of the Italian legislative elections scheduled for February 24 and 25. However, troubled by the lack of ethics among politicians, the region's all-important Catholic vote is more undecided than ever.

Published on 22 February 2013 at 11:55

Rows of plastic chairs had to be installed, as they are every Sunday, alongside some old wooden benches because Santa Eufemia's somewhat decrepit Baroque nave is packed to the gills. The church is in a parish of Milan, similar to many others, near the Porta Romana. It is now a gentrified neighbourhood of the Lombard capital. Loden and mink mingle with jackets and gym suits. Parishioners include: families, some older folk and many young people. About 20 per cent of Italians go to church on average once a week but practicing Catholics are more numerous in the Milan diocese, the largest in the country.
After mass, politics are discussed in small groups. "Berlusconi's antics disgusted us all. But more than the moral issue, there are all the reforms he promised and, in 18 years, failed to implement," says Matteo, a teacher in a Catholic school. "Each of us must ask ourselves, in good conscience, what are today's main priorities and which party best responds to these. But the answer is less obvious than ever," adds Riccardo, who has a degree in literature and is seeking employment. Like tens of thousands of Catholic youth in Milan, both are involved in volunteer activities such as working with patients in a mental hospital or tutoring children.

Progressives versus CL

At the other end of town, bordering Sesto San Giovanni, in a suburb formerly called "the Italian Stalingrad" because of its massive communist electorate, rises the House of Charity Foundation. Located in a former primary school, the Foundation welcomes immigrants in distress, unemployed people without resources and, a direct effect of the crisis, bankrupt small business owners. "Civil society is as lively as it is creative, but it has yet to find a political outlet," sighs Don Virginio Colmegna, a figurehead of the Milanese Christian left who is committed to social issues. Nearly 33 per cent of Italians are undecided about their vote. Catholics in this situation are particularly abundant, especially in Lombardy which represents a crucial electoral district. The hefty "majority bonus" allocated to the leading party is calculated at the national level for the Chamber of Deputies but region by region for the Senate. If it takes Lombardy, the right would have a good chance of holding the upper chamber.
In Milan, and even more so in the rest of the region of over 10 million inhabitants – by far the most populated, the wealthiest and the most productive in the peninsula – Catholic movements have always represented a political and cultural force. On the one hand there are the progressives, in the wider sense of the term, who still follow the social message of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a prestigious Jesuit, who was the Bishop of the city from 1980 to 2002. On the other hand, there are those, such as the Communion and Liberation Movement (CL), who in the spirit of Jean Paul II, brandish Catholic values first and foremost. The current Bishop, Cardinal Angelo Scola, a front-runner to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, is close to this current whose political weight is a determining factor in the region due to its vast social and economic networks. If the progressives have clearly opted for the left and the Democratic Party, the others – beginning with CL, which backed Silvio Berlusconi for years – are now confused. The bewilderment of a good part of Lombardy's Catholics was amplified when Roberto Formigoni, the all-powerful president of the region for 17 years and a CL member, was forced to resign due to accusations of corruption.

Sacrifices under Monti ought not be in vain

The Catholic hierarchy long supported "Il Cavaliere" but, since early autumn of 2011, even before he was forced to resign under the pressure of the street, the Church began to attack, calling for an ethical renewal. "It was not about telling people how to vote, but about the reaffirmation of principles and reflecting on how to reinforce the presence of civil society in order to revive politics," explains Massimo Ferlini, a Milanese leader and the vice-president of a national network of 40,000 small- and medium-sized firms, half of them in Lombardy. Accounting for a total annual turnover of about €70bn, the firms operate in the health sector, the food service industry, waste management, biotechnology and other hi-tech sectors. However, they also sponsor food or medicine banks to help the disadvantaged. The opponents of CL see this as its economic arm and the core of a power structure that rests on regional administration.
For Massimo Ferlini, a former leader of the Communist Youth now returned to the faith of his childhood, it is important to "keep an eye on Europe" and to not render useless the sacrifices imposed for the past year by Mario Monti and his caretaker government. Many have made the same choice, including leading elected officials such as MEP Mario Mauro, who resigned from Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party (PDL). Others, nonetheless, remain faithful to "Il Cavaliere" for lack of what they consider a credible alternative.

Will the region swing to the left?

"Never have Catholics been so torn between different political forces, but this may the opportunity to revive a short-sighted left through some common humanist values," says Paolo Sorbi, a former hippy who led the Communist and revolutionary group Lotta Continua, and who now practices a Catholicism so fervent that he was for years one of the leaders of Milan's Right to Life movement. This time he is tempted by the [social-democrat] Democratic Party. Especially since some of its candidates are Catholic activists and are campaigning on issues dear to the faithful.
"For the past 20 years, we have seen the devastating effects of unbridled egotism and of individualist arrogance," says Umberto Ambrosoli, adding that "a value, that of the law, is the basis of his commitment". A newcomer to politics, this young lawyer, the son of Giorgio Ambrosoli (a well-known attorney killed in 1979 by the mafia), is wearing the colours of the left in his bid for the presidency of the region, after having won the primary at the head of a civil society list. Just two years ago, during the regional elections, Roberto Formigoni won in Lombardy, for the third time, with 54 per cent of the vote.
Traditionally on the right, could the region swing over, as Milan did last year? Opinion polls say that Umberto Ambrosoli is neck to neck with Roberto Maroni, the leader of the Northern League, Berlusconi's ally. Many Catholics are worried that the secessionist League might win Lombardy especially since it already controls the other Northern regions. The xenophobic tendencies of the "Leaguers" irritate many of the faithful.

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