Italian leader's
support for unmarried couples sparks reaction from
Catholic Church

A top Italian cardinal was scheduled to address Italian bishops Monday amid a debate in this overwhelmingly Catholic country over whether the government should grant unmarried couples--likely including gay couples--some form of legal recognition. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops' conference and the pope's vicar for Rome, was expected to reiterate the church's opposition to unmarried couples and its defense of families as unions of men and women founded on marriage. The debate was sparked last week when Romano Prodi, the center-left leader expected to challenge Premier Silvio Berlusconi in general elections next year, said he favored giving legal status to unmarried couples. Prodi stopped short of proposing legalization of same-sex marriages, such as is the case in Spain, but said he was looking to a 1999 French law that gives unmarried couples, including gay and lesbian couples, extensive legal rights if they register their unions with the state. Italy, where Vatican influence is strong, does not recognize unions of unmarried couples, including same-sex relationships. Gay rights groups have been pushing for legal recognition for common-law couples in hopes that the move might pave the way for granting legal status to gay couples as well. In an interview published Sunday in Italian paper La Repubblica, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Vatican's health department, said proposals to give recognition to unmarried couples can only create confusion and threaten traditional families. (AP)