Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/279

 ITALY

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ITALY

The Senate consists of members, partly hereditary (the princes of the blood J, and partly appointed by the king for life, and without a definite limitation in their number, the age of forty years Ijcing a requisite for appointment. Since 1S4S, 1392 senators have been ap- pointed, there being 370 of them at the present time, not counting the princes of the blood, who become senators at the age of twenty-one years and receive the voting power at the age of twenty-five. Senators and deputies enjoy personal immunity in penal matters, and there- fore theSenate alone is competent to judge a senator; while to judge a deputy the magistrate must have the consent of the Chamber of Deputies. A senator or a deputy cannot be arrestetl, except in flagrante delicto. Their service is without financial remuneration. The king, as the head of the executive power, has the as- sistance of ministers who are responsible to Parlia- ment; they constitute the cabinet, and are responsible collectively for the official acts of each. They are named and dismissed by the king, who, however, in the exercise of this function must hold in account the manifest tendencies of the Chamber; wherefore the government of Italy is strictly parliamentary. The minister who is the head of the cabinet, called also president of the council, represents the unity of ac- tion of the Government, in contraposition to the diver- sity of functions among the different ministers. The royal prerogatives are: power to declare war, to con- clude treaties of peace and of alliance, providing they do not require the cession of territory or of funds, the right of pardon, and that of decree. In the relations of individuals to the State the constitution establishes the following general principles of justice: legal equal- ity, individual liberty, inWolability of domicile, that of property and of public debt, liberty of the press, freedom of association and of meetings, and, finally, equity and proportion in taxation.

(2) Church and State. — The first article of the con- stitution of the kingdom declares the Catholic religion to be the only state religion. Nevertheless the Ital- ian State and its jurisprudence are atheistical; and in all solemn public functions, as in speeches from the throne, for several years past, any reference to the Divinity is studiously avoided, wliile the Government, whether conservative or liberal, has always been more or less covertly Voltairian and given to State-worsliip. The famous formula of Cavour, " A free church in a free state", which is a truth in the United States of .\merica, in Italy is applied only to the domestic con- cerns of the Church; in all else the Church, in civil and in parliamentary matters, is subject to the State through a jus singulare, which places it in a worse con- dition than a private citizen in regard to property rights. The laws affecting the Church in Italy are mainly Articles 1 to IS of the Fundamental Statute of the kingdom; the fundamental constitutional law of 13 May, 1S71, on the prerogatives of the sovereign pontiff and on the relations of the State to the Church, called the Law of Guarantees; the law on the suppression of regular and of secular ecclesiastical legal entities, and on the conservation of others (laws of 7 July, 1SG6, and 5 August, 1867). By the eighteenth article of the con- stitution, excepting Rome and the six suburbicarian episcopal sees, the revenues from ecclesiastical bene- fices that are vacant belong as of royal right to the Crown, which, after deducting expenses of adminis- tration and those incurred in the interest of the vacant benefice, ought to apply the funds to purposes of wor- ship and of charity, such as subsidies to priests and parochial needs, public worship, and the repair of poor churches. By the Law of Guarantees, the person of the sovereign pontiff is sacred and in\-iolable; offences committed against him are pimished as those com- mitted against the king; royal honours are granted to him; the precedence recognized in him by Catholic sovereigns is maintained, and he is given the right to have guards for his person and for the protection of

his palaces. The latter, that is the Vatican, the Pal- ace of the Lateran and the Villa of C'astel Gandolfo, with all tlieir appurtenances, enjoy the right of extra- territoriality, which makes them free from visitations and inspections bj- public authorities, without the authorization of the pope. The exercise of his spirit- ual ministry is freed from all intervention by extra- neous authority, and to this end the pope is given the right to post his decrees on the doors of the churches of Rome, without censorship and with immunity for those persons whose office it is to make such publica- tion. The law also ensures to the sovereign pontiff freedom of correspondence with the Cathohc world, there being preserved to him, with this object, the head houses of the various religious orders in Rome, while he is given the faculty of establishing postal and telegraphic offices, with employees of his choosing, at his residence. The envoys of the pope and those ac- credited to him by foreign powers are guaranteed the prerogatives and immunities that are recognized in diplomatic agents, by international law. Finally, the law sets aside an annuity of 8645,000, to be paid to the pope for the needs of the Holy See, for the main- tenance of the .\postolic palaces, and for the salaries of servants attached to his person; this annuity is exempted from taxation for all time. During a va- cancy of the pontifical throne no judicial or political authority may interfere with the personal hberty of cardinals, antl the Government is obliged to protect the meetings of the conclave from any external vio- lence. The cardinalate is among the titles that make the holder eligible to the Senate, and, in matters of ceremonial precedence and of military honours, car- dinals are made equal with the princes of the blood. The law assigns a sum of .$20,000 to be paid to the Holy See for the maintenance of the houses of the various religious orders, excepting that of the Jesuits. The right of royal exequatur over the acts of the sovereign pontiff and that of royal placet over the acts of diocesan bishops, is exercised by the State only in regard to the use of ecclesiastical property and to the provision for the benefices, except in the city of Rome and in the suburbicarian sees; this royal pre- rogative, however, is of a provisional nature, because it is to cease with the re-arrangement of ecclesiastical property that is promised by the Law of Guarantees. All religious character has been taken from matri- mony and from oaths; all intervention that the Church exercised in public charities and in education, accord- ing to historical tradition, has been suppressed and has been more and more replaced by lay authority; the cemeteries have been placed under civil authority; the courses of theology have been abolished in the universities, as has also the office of military chap- lain, except in the case of penal establishments; there remains only the ancient custom of blessing the flags in the army and in the navy. The law that suppressed religious corporations, the regular ecclesiastical bodies having legal jiersonality, and kindred secular ecclesi- astical bodies, that is simple benefices, collegiate churches, chaplaincies, prelacies, pious legacies, and every other perpetual religious institution having re- ligious cult for its object, was deprived of legal per- sonality, which, contrary to Roman and canon law, is merely a concession of the State, w-hile the property of these establishments was absorbed into the public treasury and ci\nl patrons were given the right to re- ceive in part the goods of the suppressed benefices. The same laws, however, maintained the episcopal sees, the .seminaries, cathedral chapters (although re- ducing the number of canons), the confraternities, and theadministratorships. .\ part of the property of these bodies, excepting parishes, confraternities, and ad- ministrations, equivalent to 30 per cent of their value, was taken into the public treasury for the benefit of the State, and the remainder of their real possessions was transformed into movable property, i. e., into state