The excommunication of the three Florence judges who on Saturday found the Bishop of Prato, Mgr Fiordeili, guilty of defamation was announced by the Vatican today. A communique issued quoted several Articles of Canon Law.
It said that "those who dare to call before a lay judge" a bishop and "those who hinder directly or indirectly ecclesiastical jurisdictions" automatically incur excommunication, specially reserved to the Holy See.
The Vatican also announced that the Pope had cancelled all celebrations for the anniversary of his ascent to the Papacy. The festivities where to have taken place on March 12.
The statement said "In the present condition of bitterness, grief, and outrage of the Church in Italy, of the Sacred College, the Bishops, the clergy, and the Catholic faithful, the Pope deems it necessary to suspend the customary celebrations for the anniversary of his coronation."
Excommunications of the Florence judges, who imposed a suspended fine on Mgr. Fiordeili for having described a couple married outside the Church as "public sinners" is viewed here as a serious development. It is interpreted as an affront to the entire Italian judiciary.
The couple who sued the Bishop for defamation, Signor and Signora Bellandi, have also been excommunicated. Their civil marriage was described in a pastoral letter as "the commencement of a scandalous concubinage".
The |Italian Government is a Christian Democratic one, and as such is closely linked with the Roman Catholic Church. Yesterday the party's secretary, Signor Fanfani, said the trial proved how false were allegations that the party was attempting to establish a clerical regime.
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