"Aspiration of a Minority"

Blows were traded in Naples' steep and narrow alleys, but not this time over politics. The issue was more intimate. In Italy, as much as anywhere else, war and military occupation had played hob with marriages; but men & women who wanted to shed their mates and start afresh with new ones were out of luck. By virtue of the 1929 Lateran Treaty, the state followed the law of the church, which in rare cases grants annulments (30 out of 75 requests from all over the world in 1944-45)--but never divorce.

Augusto Francale, an amiable, middle-aged bachelor practicing law in Monte Calvario--a slum known in Naples as "the natural breeding place of evil"--recently organized a league to write a divorce law for the new Republic. Similar attempts made earlier in the century had come to naught in a 97% Catholic country.* Last week Signor Francale's ideas were under attack in sermons, editorials, posters and street demonstrations. The Christian Family Defense Front sponsored such slogans as: "Beware of saboteurs of the home and family--down with divorce!" which appeared on Italian walls. The church, however, was not Francale's only opponent. Rita Montagnana, wife of Communist Leader Palmiro Togliatti, expressed her party's effort to live down its principles: "The majority of women, particularly women of the people, are against divorce." Russia, she pointed out, now put a premium on family stability. Her conclusion on the proposed divorce law: "Why should we Communists--who are for democracy--endorse this aspiration of a minority?"

*Other states without divorce laws: Spain, Portugal, Eire, most Latin American Republics, South Carolina.

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