Nuova DWF. Donna Woman Femme
Quaderni di studi internazionali sulla donna
Roma, Coines Edizioni, then Editrice coop. UTOPIA, 1976-1985

In hoc signo... Politics and ideology of the Catholic Church, 1981, n. 16

EDITORIAL, pp. 3-4

Originating from the debate about the referendum on abortion which tried to undermine the recently conquered law permitting and regulating it, the issue widens up to more comprehensive themes, such as the relationship between women and the Catholic Church and between the Catholic Church and society in Italy.

BUTTAFUOCO Annarita - TURNATURI Gabriella, An editorial, or very nearly so, pp. 5-17

This issue of "nuova dwf" opens with an essay on the politics of the Catholic movement in the period which goes from the referendum on divorce in 1974 (when many Catholic organisations voted to keep divorce in Italy, versus the Church indications) and the referendum on abortion, when the same organisations choose to side with the hierarchy positions. The writers' assumption is that Catholics, as political movement, try to take advantage of the referendum on abortion to organise their ideological reawakening and assume a leading role in society occupying the political spaces left uncovered by the crisis of the left in the last years. Finally, the paper analyses the big differences between feminist understanding and those women who call themselves "Catholic feminists" because of their being active in the Catholic reforms movement.

BRUZZICHELLI Pia, Pope Woytjla: the fascination on the male/father, pp. 17-24
MENAPACE Lidia, The politics of the Church, pp. 25-33
CODRIGNANI Giancarla, The Church and the referenda: from divorce to abortion, pp. 34-39
REPETTO Margherita, Women's movement and Catholic women's organisations, pp. 40-53
FRAIRE Manuela, Like paper-pult Madonnas, (an interview with Manuela Fraire), pp. 54-59

Here we have some political analyses of the attitude of the Church towards the referendum promoted by the Catholic organisation "Movimento per la vita" (human life movement) with the aim of drastically restricting the current law on abortion. The various writers - each of whom active either in the women's movement or in the feminist movement, focus on specific aspects of the problem in the attempt to understand the politics of the Church in its complexity, the Democrazia Cristiana, the party of "Catholics", the role of the Polish pope and the models of Catholic political militancy he introduces in Italy. Margherita Repetto and Manuela Fraire analyse the relationship between the women's liberation movement and the women active in Catholic institutions, the right to reproductive freedom (which the "Movimento per la vita" wants to abolish) and indicate the differences in theory and politics between those two female realities.

VALERIO Adriana, Being patient, alert and secluded - The woman question in the official documents of the Catholic Church (1848-1914), pp. 60-79

Through an examination of the encyclicals and the theoretical/political magazine of the Church "La Civiltà Cattolica" , the writer focuses on the attitude of the various popes and Church hierarchies towards the woman question in a period in which industrial revolution had resulted in increased female labour-force participation, (ailed by socialists as first step towards emancipation). The Church seems to ignore the fact that the enormous social changes of that period also affect traditional family relationships and women's social role and keeps on exalting women's "natural" destiny as mothers and housewives. The paper goes on to analyse the passages from the Bible and the Gospel chosen by the various popes and indicates that the selection is supportive of a conservative vision of society and totally ignoring other passages from the sacred texts which could suggest more "liberal" perspectives.

BENVENUTI PAPI Anna, Two models of female saintliness in the Middle Ages: Umiliana de' Cerchi and Villana delle Botti, pp. 80-107

Through an analysis of the life of two saints, the first one married with children who continues her life of mother and wife even after being "called" and the second one - a wife and a mother as well - who gives up her social role in order to mortify her body to the glory of God, the writer focuses on two models of female saintliness who were offered to the cult of women, specifically. The exploration goes into the social/economic conditions as well, of the historical periods and into the kind of female spirituality which was requested by the people and offered by the Church.

SCARCIA AMORETTI Biancamaria, Some notes on Iranian Revolution: a Church against women?, pp. 108-117

The writer, a scholar of Islam - specifically of Iran - criticises in this paper the approach of Western feminist movement to Iranian politics since the revolution as regards to women. Solidarity between Western and Third World women - she argues - can by no means imply the imposition on the latter of western cultural models; the case of Iran seems to be an example of cultural imperialism exerted - though not consciously, by feminism in a way which contradicts one of the basic assumptions of feminism itself: i.e. not only equal rights but a right to "otherness" as well, for all women, not withstanding the different societies to which they may belong.

CAMPESE Chiara, Verbal violence, female violence. Women in the riots against the Inquisition in Bologna in 1299, pp. 118-133

The author analyses the role of women in these riots in order to identify the specific forms of women's participation in the Catharist heresy, such as certain types of verbal violence recorded in the proceedings of the inquiry.

BETTINI Elisabetta - OSTI Susi, (edited by), The "madonnare": notes on a female Roman tradition, pp. 134-142

A report on a research carried out by the Roman women's cooperative "Tre ghinee" on the popular feast of the "madonnare". A tradition still alive in some of the old Roman quarters, this feast is linked to the yearly pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love, which is followed by only-women meetings in taverns or restaurants. The feast is organised by only-women "societies" for mutual aid, also lending out small sums of money. As there are no written records, the research is based on oral sources.

VALENSISE Marina, The sex of Clio. On women's history in France, from Reformation to Revolution, pp. 143-154

The author addresses some problems of feminist historiography, with special reference to some U.S.A. studies, pointing out as a correct and productive example the work of Zemon Davis, who always puts women's history in a wider context and never separates it from the history of men.