Ayatollah Ratzinger

We frown upon and even joke about countries such as Iran and South Korea, just as often forgetting about other such as Saudi Arabia and Burma, for their medieval-like rulers. In Islamic countries, we declared ourselves chocked at the level of integration between religion and state affairs and abhore the notion of having a secular leading be the de facto temporal leader of a country. In the most repressive dictatourships, we denounce the random disrespect for the rule of law that an all-empowered leader exerts on his own behalf.

Here, in Europe, we enjoy the civic and public liberties and we are ensured that the obscurantism that came with the crossover between Church and State is well behind us. Or is it?

What happened in the Eluana Englaro case, in Italy, is a sad proof to the contrary. Over the course of the last week or so, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI dictated what was admissible for a state court to decide or not and, in full conformity, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tailered a law to prevent that court decision to be carried out. It is this simple. Much like in Iran, a religious leader became the de facto head of temporal power in one of the founding members of the EU. Not unlike South Korea, a head of government and de facto parliamentary majority leader tried to trample over a court decision and whomever else opposed him by means of an arbitrary, ad hoc piece of legislation.

And don't get me started on the nightmare that the public discussion that ensued must have been for the Englaro. I'm not completely sure what the Pope meant when he said that "euthanasia is a false solution and that the only true solution is love". I honestly did not imagine him a Beatles' fan, but the man is full of surprises.

I dont think His Holiness implied that the Englaro didn't love their child, I'm not saying that. But there wasn't much space for the doubt when Silvio Berlusconi said it out loud: that "Eluana's father just wanted to get out of that nuisanse". And the whole idea that she was still alive because, even in that vegetative coma, "she could still bear children" is the final nail in the coffin of the concept that Mr Berlusconi might actually be human.

In the end, it was an 84-year-old wise man that kept the last shred of sanity in Italian politics. His name is Giorgio Napolitano and, actually, the "last shred of dignity and sanity" is his actual job descrition: he is the President of Italy, after all.

The fact of the matter remains that, despite all the gibberish, Mr Berlusconi tried once more to make it into the Italian law a regulation allowing him to take "emergency action" whenever he and his parliament deem necessary. This would allow him to step on courts and presidents alike because, in a country covered in redtape (surely not due to him; he will soon have only been there for seven of the last ten years), he feels the need for a way go around a constitution that he calls "philosovietic". At the end of the day, he wants to create a situation where he can rule the country by day and have the Pope rule its consciences and its doctors by night.

I'll grant you that, il cavaliere: that division between workforce and mind controlling apparatus wouldn't be very sovietic at all.