The View from Bologna

God moves in mysterious ways...

Nervous times for non-believers are here, as the press and media in Italy go into a mystical overdrive inspired by the death of Sr. Lucia of Fatima fame; the death of Don Luigi Giussani, the founder of Comunione & Liberazione*; and the continuing illness of Pope John Paul II (6 pages devoted to him in today's edition of La Repubblica, which is generally regarded as left leaning).

And, with all this focus on religious leaders, visionaries, and men of faith, little wonder that the holy happenings in the small town of Civitavecchia should come up for discussion.

In 1995, on the 2nd of February, a small souvenir statue of the Madonna, purchased in Medjugore, in the home of the Gregori family in Civitavecchia, started weeping what appeared to be tears of blood. Since then the town, in the province of Lazio, has become an unofficial point of pilgrimage for devout catholics - the town's website includes the 'Madonnina' or little Madonna under its attractions category.

On the 23rd of January of this year, the Corriere della Sera published an article, written by Catholic journalist Vittorio Messori** called Civitavecchia - here's the proof[1], outlining a report commissioned by the Bishop of Civitavecchia on the happenings in his diocese. Ever the sceptic, this monkey was intrigued to read about the authoratitive sources that, after much investigation, had decided "there is no other logical and sustainable argument but the acceptance of divine intervention"[2].

The first proof was the conversion of the 'sceptic', Monsignor Grillo, the Bishop of the Diocese (who, on the grounds of religious freedom objected to DNA testing of the blood found on the statue). A man, we were informed by the Corriere, who from his ordination as Bishop onwards had never encouraged popular forms of devotion or archaic traditions[3].

The second proof was that the eminent Padre Stefano De Fiores, a world expert in Mariology, had been convinced that events in Civitavecchia were a divine intervention.

The third 'proof' (the monkey's scepticism had grown to epic proportions by this point in the article), was scientific and revolved around the DNA testing. Shortly after the news spread about the Madonnina of Civitavecchia, a consumer association pressed the local magistrature to investigate what they assumed was a fraud. The local police seized the statue and sent samples of the blood for analysis. DNA testing revealed the blood to be ... that of a human male. Without the batting of a ceramic eyelid, the theological 'sceptics' admitted that this if anything proved the case, as Catholics revere the blood of Jesus rather than that of his mother. Hmmm ... not quite as scientific as we had hoped, but it does open up the interesting prospect that scientists now have a blood sample, if you're a believer, of Jesus.

What believers and sceptics (the real ones) alike don't have is a DNA analysis of blood samples from the Gregori family. According to Messori's article, which has been widely quoted in Marian circles on the net (Marian circles on the net - who would've thought), it's important to dispell the suggestions that the Gregori family have refused to give blood samples for analysis - in fact they've "always declared themselves ready to undergo exams to compare the blood".

Strange then that the family went all the way to the Constitutional Court to prevent any exam. According to Enrico Veneruso, a lawyer representing CODACONS (the consumer association), the family had originally been ordered by the authorities investigating the matter to present themselves for comparitive blood samples to be taken. They refused, and took their case to the Constitutional Court, where they won their right to be "prepared to undergo" exams without undergoing any. It seems that, in actual fact, the family are prepared to undergo any tests as long as they're not called for by the State but by the Church (incidentally, according to Veneruso, the verdict of the Constitutional Court, unmentioned in the Corriere article, sets a precedent for citizens - including presumed killers - to refuse giving blood samples).

It's all a bit of harmless fun, at the end of the day, though, isn't it? To this monkey's mind, if pilgrims want to take a day out in Civitavecchia, or Ballinaspittle, or Medjugore, to see bleeding, moving, or weeping apparitions of the Madonna, that's their perogative.

The problem arises when television and newspaper reports give some pseudo-scientific verification to these events, suggesting that they have undergone rigorous tests and checks for veracity. In reality, the body that checks these 'miraculous' events is the one body that stands to gain from their verification - the Church.

Marian visions have a political dimension as suggested in the work of historians like Ruth Harris, Paul Christopher Manuel, and David Blackbourn, who have examined Marian apparitions in the context of the wider society. Whether it be Lourdes, Fatima or Marpingen, these apparitions don't exist in a vacuum, solely reinforcing Catholic faith. Rather, they have been used in the past to rally the faithful to the defence of the holy mother Church and her social message. Lourdes, officially recognised by the Church (and hence 'proven'), occured at a time when the Church was still coming to terms with the French Revolution; Fatima occured when the Portuguese Revolution of 1910 had decreed a separation of Church and State; statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary started girating in west Cork during the 1980s, when Ireland was legislatively discussing divorce and abortion; the Medjugorje visions occured in 1981, after the death of Tito, as Yugoslavia started to reassert its ethnic divisions.

Italy has plenty of legislation enacted and proposed that remains controversial for Catholics and non-Catholics, whether it be current laws governing assisted procreation, abortion, or divorce, or possible pressure in the future for things like gay marriage.

People are entitled to their faith, to believe in whatever miracles they choose, but do they have the right to have these 'miracles' masqueraded, on national TV and in the national press, as somehow objectively verified? Would UFO enthusiasts get similar column inches? Do messages conveyed through a souvenir statue, about 'protecting the family', deserve blanket news coverage?

Perhaps they do. After all, the same media led us to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq...

* "an ecclesial movement whose purpose
is the education to Christian maturity of its adherents and collaboration
in the mission of the Church in all the spheres of contemporary life" - that's a polite way to put it.
** Messori's interviews with John Paul II formed the basis for the Pope's bestselling Crossing the threshold of hope in 1994. When describing Messori as a "Catholic writer" we are using the term employed by the journalist himself as a description on his official website.

[1]Civitavecchia - Ecco le prove. Corriere Della Sera 23/01/2005
[2]"non c’è altra spiegazione logica e sostenibile se non l’accettazione di un intervento divino" - Padre Stefano De Fiores - Corriere Della Sera 23/01/2005
[3] "Nominato vescovo, il monsignore non aveva incoraggiato devozioni popolari e tradizioni arcaiche, bensì cercato di fondare tra la sua gente una spiritualità tutta biblica e liturgica."
[4]è necessario dissipare ogni dubbio, affermando che la famiglia Gregori si è sempre dichiarata disponibile a sottomettersi all’esame per la comparazione del sangue.
[5]"Il gip Michelozzi, infatti, incaricò il medico legale di effettuare il prelievo di sangue per la comparazione del Dna. Nessuno, però, si presentò all’appuntamento fissato con il dottor Saladini, al quale non rimase che riferire al magistrato, che solo allora dispose il prelievo coattivo. Dall’opposizione dell’avvocato Forestieri nacque poi un caso che ha fatto giurisprudenza, con la sentenza della Corte Costituzionale che oggi consente anche ad un potenziale assassino di sottrarsi al prelievo per il test del Dna" Enrico Veneruso, lawyer representing CODACONS (Consumer association) - Civonline.it 27/01/2005

Grisham's The Broker, Bologna, and rendition flights.

Bologna is basking in the glow of attention afforded by American writer John Grisham, who has chosen to ambient most of his latest novel The Broker in its medieval city centre.

The story revolves around an imprisoned, high-profile lawyer (obviously) who receives a controversial pardon in the dying days of an administration. On his release he is spirited out of the country, by the CIA, to a new anonymous life in Bologna. Of course there is skullduggery afoot, and in truth our hero has been placed out of American Jurisdiction in order for the rest of the world's baddies (Mossad, the Saudis, and Red China) to get a shot at eliminating him.

While Bologna basks, in Milan a row has developed over the last three weeks between the Italian magistrature and a number of Government ministers over a case against three supposed Islamic militants.

The row first broke out when a Judge absolved a number of North African men from charges relating to international terrorism. While the Judge, Clementina Forleo, ruled that the men in various cases were guilty of aiding clandestine immigration to Italy, and of falsifying documents, she refused to find the men guilty of international terrorism. The Judge admitted that the men's principal aim in Italy was the collection of money and volunteers for military training camps in the middle east, presumably in Iraq[1]. Forleo found, though, that the State had not proved any concrete connection between the financing and support of these camps and international terrorism. In her summing up, she referred to article 18/2, of the 1999 UN convention on International Terrorism, suggesting, according to the press, that there was a distinction to be made between 'guerillas' and 'terrorists'.

The case could not have come at a more sensitive time, as an Italian soldier, Simone Cola, was shot in Nassirya on the 21st of January. Reminding anyone who needed reminding, that the Italians have a large contingent of 'peace-keepers' in Iraq. The question was obvious: could Cola's attackers have benefitted from funds or volunteers sent by the men absolved in Milan. The Minister for Justice ordered an immediate investigation into the sentencing.

It's not the scope of this entry to examine the legal arguments put forward by Judge Forleo. What is of primary interest to today's entry is what happened/is happening subsequently.

One of the defendants, Mohammed Daki, was sentenced to one year and ten months - of which he had already served the majority. As a result, on the 4th of February he was released, and was the subject of an immediate attempt at expulsion by Interior Minister Pisanu. However, due to part of the country's restrictive immigration laws, no international terrorist suspects may be the subject of an expulsion order. And so, Mohammed Daki remains in legal limbo. He is clandestine in the country, but exempt from expulsion.

In the absence of an expulsion order, Minister Pisanu has applied for a special preventative order which will oblige Daki to remain in the town of Reggio Emilia, presenting himself to the local police twice daily.

This monkey, being slow on the uptake, has often wondered about the merits of expelling terrorist suspects from western countries. Surely sending them out of your jurisdiction impedes the possibilities for surveillance and information gathering? Thanks to the outspoken Minister for institutional reform and devolution, Roberto Calderoli, the thinking becomes clear. Calderoli said of Daki last week: "Daki should be immediately deported. Morrocan Justice will take care of him, taking care of justice for us as well. [...] Poor Italy, transformed into a land for clandestine terrorists and fagots"[2](What homosexuality has to do with the argument one can only wonder - but that's Calderoli for you). For people like Calderoli there is a presumed guilt, and if legal measures in one's own country don't produce the desired result, then the suspect should be handed over to a country that doesn't have such 'limitations'.

One has to thank Calderoli for his bluntness - in stark contrast to the official language employed by Italy's ally, the United States, that is currently employing a system of 'Rendition Flights' (with stopovers in Britain, and Ireland). These 'rendition flights' are where terror suspects are flown secretly to their countries of origin, where torture poses no legal problem, and all based on the suspicions of the 'intelligence' community.

It's ironic that this should be happening at precisely the time that Tony Blair has publicly apologised to the Guilford Four, who were wrongly convicted following the IRA bombing of a pub in Guilford in 1974.

Of course, people convinced of the righteousness of the war against terror will argue that it's better to be safe than sorry, as was suggested by former CIA official Michael Scheur who said "The bottom line is, getting anyone off the street who you are confident has been involved, or is planning to be involved, in operations that could kill Americans is a worthwhile activity"[3].

Since Sept 11th, 2001, the American Civil Liberties Union estimates that between three to five thousand people have been detained in the United States (the Government refuses to release official figures). "It is known, however, that this group is almost entirely Arab, South Asian, or Muslim and most have been deported or allowed to leave the country. None of the detainees has been charged with any terrorism-related crime"[4]. Deported seems a gentle term when national security is at stake. What does it matter if/when mistakes are made? Take into account the comments of Bob Baer, a former CIA operative in the middle east, and things take on a different light: "If you want a serious interrogation you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear . . . you send them to Egypt"[5]. Apologies for miscarriages of justice issued later will hardly be much consolation to prisoners 'disappeared'.

That there may be a problem with the interpretation of the law in Italy, where suspects who have been proven to have sent money and volunteers to an area where Italian soldiers are under threat, seems obvious. There are appeal process, that are under way, however - giving ample opportunity for legal argument on the case.

Grisham is a bestselling author who knows what side his bread is buttered on. The hero in The Broker, subject to a type of rendition flight, gains our sympathy. He's a patriot, with a pardon from the President, and, most importantly, white.

[1] - Corriere Della Sera 24/01
[2] - "Bisogna espellere subito Daki. Ci penserà la giustizia del Marocco a fare giustizia anche per noi. Povera giustizia, povera Italia, trasformata in terra di terroristi e di finocchi irregolari" - La Repubblica, 12/02/2005
[3]Britain Accused over CIA's Secret Torture Flights
[4] Information on Detention - American Civil Liberties Union
[5] US Accused of ‘Torture Flights’ - Sunday Times, 14/11/2004

Nutella, the Foibe, and the sugar coating of history

The late, great, Italian singer-songwriter Giorgio Gaber understood perfectly well that left-right labels were about more than mere politics, as he satirised in Destra-Sinistra (Right - Left):

I blue-jeans che sono un segno di sinistra con la giacca vanno verso destra, il concerto dello stadio è di sinistra, mentre i prezzi sono un po' di destra. (Jeans are a sign of the left, while with a jacket they veer right, A stadium concert is leftish, while the prices are a bit to the right).

In a wonderful article entitled Il partito della Nutella, published in Internazionale, taken from the French paper Libération, Eric Jozsef speculates as to what side of the political fence Nutella lies on. Noted Director, and left-leaning activist, Nanni Moretti laid claim to Italy's chocolate-nut spread in his 1984 film Bianca, where he eulogised its internationalist qualities. Ten years later, Teodoro Buontempo, described by Jozsef as a neofascist, a member of the anything but left-leaning Alleanza Nazionale claimed it for the other side, suggesting that the combination of wellbeing and fantasy that Nutella imparts makes it a natural partner for the right.

If one can argue about which ideological foot the Nutella shoe fits on, it's easy to see that debate may get heated over slightly more serious topics, such as history.

And so, today, the 10th of February, the first national day of memory for the victims of the Foibe is being observed, by most. The Foibe massacres occured between 1943 and 1946, when Yugoslavian forces killed between 10,000 to 20,000 Italian men, women and children in the area surrounding Trieste and Gorizia. They threw the bodies, many still alive, into deep fissures within the Carso mountain range, known in local dialect as Foibe. For years these massacres went unspoken, partly due to an embarassment on the part of the Italian left, and partly due to the exigencies of cold war politics that wished to avoid upsetting the independent communist Yugoslavia.

That the centre-right Government has instituted an official day of memory will straight away draw subconcious parallels with the Holocaust, and the officially sanctioned day of memory on the 27th of January. Just as on that day those with fascist leanings must hang their heads in shame, so today the implication is that hardy old communists must face up to their grisly past. Gianfranco Fini, head of Alleanza Nazionale, welcomed the commemoration, saying "you can't have first and second class tragedies"[1]. A cynic could summon up the ghost of Gaber - the Holocaust is left, the Foibe right*.

It's right and proper that the massacres should come to public attention, and be remembered, but it's unfortunate that the vast majority of quotes are coming from Politicians rather than Historians - and politicians who, one suspects, may not have studied their history in depth.

Historian Raoul Pupo criticises both left and right wing parties for their sudden, convenient interest in the massacres. For years he, and several colleagues, have studied the massacres to general indifference. Now, the story has been rediscovered and packaged as a
simple message. To figures on the left such as Piero Fassino and Walter Veltroni, the Foibe represent a tragic event that must be confronted, thus showing how much the left wing has grown in responsibility and its ability to auto-examine. To figures on the right, such as Berlusconi and his Alleanza Nazionale partners, the Foibe represent 60 years of history, and the Italian left, turning a blind eye to the evil excesses of Communism. To some extent both views are correct. However, as Pupo points out, things are always more complex in History than in Politics.

For example, there's a distinct absence of discussion about the History of Istria prior to the Foibe massacres. Istria is in the far North East of Italy, and at the start of the XXth century formed part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After the First World War the region was handed over to Italy, but retained a large Slovenian population. During the 1920s, under Mussolini, there was a deliberate process of 'Italianization' in the region, which at times included violence. During the Second World War Yugoslavia was carved up between Italy, Germany, and Croatian fascist forces. That some of the violence in post 1943 Istria was a reaction to this particular history is undoubted.

It's worth quoting Pupo, to gain an insight into the complexity of the History:

There's no doubt that the attacks against the Italians were provoked in part by the infamous behaviour of Fascists in the twentys, and during the occupation after 1941. But also playing a part were the nationalistic antagonism that predated Fascism, the seizure of power on the part of the communists, the creation of a Stalinist regime, the politics of power in the new Yugoslavia under Tito. A reality then much more complex than that which left-leaning historiography, until now, has outlined. Today it serves us all to rediscover the facts, precisely to defend ourselves from the political use of this History, undertaken in the main by the right.[2]

Better that they (Politicians) spend their energy arguing about the ideology of dessert spreads, and leave the History to those willing to study from all angles.

* It would be unfair to suggest that the right in general have not commemorated the Holocaust - this year in particular with both Berlusconi and Fini speaking out strongly against the Italian racial laws of 1938/39.
[1]Quoted from RAI via SBS
[2] Raul Pupo in interview - La Repubblica 10th February

Dreaming of an old man - the Italian Lottery.

In Jorge Luis Borges' short story The Lottery in Babylon, the lottery evolves from a simple game into a complex system of punishment and reward, in which every free man is entered automatically. It becomes a metaphor for fate, with a mysterious company drawing numbers to decide which citizens of Babylon should be happy, and which sad.

Italy is currently gripped in a fever of discussion over its lottery. The system is complex, at least to this foreigner, suffice to say that one can play with numbers chosen from different regions (each of which have separate draws), and you can play everything on one number. There are magazines specifically devoted to playing the game, and the famous smorfia from Naples, a board that translate symbols from your dreams or events into numbers to play. It's a serious business.

Currently the number 53* hasn't emerged from the Venetian draw for over 180 consecutive draws. And, as in Borges' story, the stakes have become life or death for some. In at least one documented case a woman has committed suicide after putting her life's savings on the number, which failed to materialise[1]

On the 28th of January, Finance minister Domenico Siniscalco went so far as to caution players of the lotto urging people to play, but with their brains and a sense of moderation[2].

The Government are in a tricky position here. The game is popular, and run by chance - precluding any intervention on the part of the State to 'encourage' #53 to pop its heavily backed head up. At the same time though, there's a huge amount of advertising and publicity for the lotto, encouraging people to play (including the strategic use of lotto colours and symbols in normal programs on RAI, according to some), which to some extent makes the Government complicit in the growth of pathological gambling.

The matter becomes slightly more political when you take into account the tax cuts introduced by the Government late last year which have just come in to effect. Tax cuts were one of the major electoral promises made by Forza Italia, and one on which they had to deliver. There's been much argument as to the extent of the tax cuts and whom they benefit (Berluska has obviously learned some 'wealth re-distribution' tricks from his Texan buddy). One thing is certain though, in a time of economic downturn and Maastricht guidelines the Government have managed their tax cuts in part by adding indirect taxes on things like -yep, you guessed it- the lotto!

*According to our smorfia (when in rome, etc.) 53 is represented by il vecchio or an old man, who might just be less popular in the dreams of Italian men than #21
[1] Corriere della Sera 13/01/2005
[2] Corriere della Sera - 28/01/2005