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Pope Prods Prodi on Pro-Life, Family Issues NewsMax.com Wires VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict reminded Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, during their first official talks on Friday, that the Vatican strongly defends the traditional family and ethics in scientific research.
Prodi, whose centre-left government took office last May, spoke privately with the Pope for about 40 minutes and later held separate talks with the Vatican's new secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
A Vatican statement said at both meetings, particular attention was paid to topics that included "bioethics (and) the defence of life and of the family".
The Pope, elected 18 months ago, has strongly backed Italy's powerful Roman Catholic Church in its opposition to gay marriage and any formal recognition of unwed heterosexual couples. Story Continues Below
The government headed by Prodi, a practising Catholic, will probably have to confront both issues sooner or later.
The coalition has promised some form of recognition for unmarried couples but has so far stopped short of openly supporting gay marriage as part of its programme.
But some leftist parties in the coalition, which ranges from Catholics to communists, back greater rights for homosexuals, including marriage.
Some in the centre left support a legal recognition similar to that in France, which in 1999 granted all couples the right to form civil unions. Civil unions entitle them to joint social security, limited inheritance rights and other benefits.
Italy's Catholic Church opposes this.
Prodi told Vatican Radio in an interview about his visit that if the debate "about life and death, ethics and the roots of man are discussed with preconceived ideas . . . the outcome will inevitably be disastrous".
"But if there is an opportunity to discuss this in depth in parliament and in society, the solution could be coherent with the broad guidelines given by the church," said Prodi.
The Prodi government is already at odds with the Church over bioethical issues.
Last May Research Minister Fabio Mussi drew fire from the Church when he withdrew Italy's signature from a "declaration of ethics" which Italy and other countries had made in 2005 under the previous government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
That declaration objected to using EU funds for embryonic stem cell research and created a "blocking minority" on the release of EU money for some research projects.
Mussi said he had removed Rome's signature from the declaration because he felt Italy should not take "a position of total closure to experimentation and research" in Europe.
Human stem cells can develop into any cell type. Scientists believe they could be used as a repair system for many parts of the body.
Their use is controversial because the most promising stem cells for treating human diseases are derived from very early human embryos left over from fertility treatments.
The Roman Catholic Church opposes embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos.
In 2005, a referendum that had aimed to loosen up Italy's tight law on assisted procreation and embryo research failed after the Church campaigned against it.
The Vatican statement said Prodi and the Pope also discussed the Middle East, Italy's peacekeeping role in Lebanon, and dialogue among world religions.
(c) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.
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