“The Italian Republic recognises the right of members of Adventist Christian Churches to observe the biblical sabbatical sabbath, which runs from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday” (law 516, 1988)
On November 22, 2023, Seventh-day Adventists remembered an important anniversary for the church in Italy. Law no. 516, which, with its 38 articles, regulates relations between the nation and the denomination, is 35 years old.
One of the key moments in the history of the Adventist Church in Italy was certainly the signing of the agreement with the State. After the revision of the Concordat with the Catholic Church, on the basis of Article 8 of the Constitution, the government had already signed an Understanding with the Waldensian and Methodist Churches in August 1984. Subsequently, a government commission and a representative of the Adventist Church discussed the draft of the Understanding submitted for the latter. After several months of negotiations, on December 29, 1986, the then prime minister, Bettino Craxi, and Pastor Enrico Long, president of the Italian Union of Seventh-day Adventist Christian Churches, signed the final agreement between the State and the Adventist Church. This agreement was subsequently turned into law and is now the text that regulates relations between the Adventist Church and Italy.
Lina Ferrara, a journalist with Hope Media Italia, discussed this law with Davide Romano, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Italian Union and president of Italian Adventist University Villa Aurora.
Lina Ferrara: Can you briefly tell us how Law No. 516 of 22 November 1988 came into being?
Davide Romano: The law was born after a long and troubled [development]. While many people are aware of the battle for the full implementation of the principles proclaimed in the Constitutional Charter, not many know that precisely the implementation of Article 8 paragraph 3 of the Constitution was among those that most needed a long political metabolization. Thus, around the mid-1980s, the first agreements were reached with the Waldensians, Adventists, and the Assemblies of God. [This took place] within the framework of a simultaneous revision of the Concordat with the Holy See, and at the peak of an intense work of political awareness that the evangelical minorities, with an undoubted leading role played by our church and the Waldensian church, were able to promote.
L. F.: What do you think, in general, about this law?
D. R.: Well, every law can be improved if the political framework allows it. Today, in the light of the experience gained in application and case law, I would suggest some amendments to articles 14 and 17. Over the years, some minor changes have already been introduced. Today, we are faced with new instances that require further additions.
L. F.: What has it meant for the Adventist Church?
D. R.: I would say that, not only for the Adventist Church but for all religious minorities in our country, the law of understanding has been a valuable tool for the formal implementation of the Constitution and has allowed them to come out from the shadow to which they had been relegated because of the overwhelming centrality of the Roman Catholic Church.
If I think specifically of Adventists, I cannot fail to note how the use of sabbatical leave in schools and in the workplace, albeit with persistent criticalities, and the full and automatic recognition of ministers of religion have enabled our church to carry out its mission of proclaiming the Gospel with full prerogatives.
L. F.: In 2009, a change took place concerning [Italian Adventist University], of which you are currently the [president]. Can you tell us about it?
D. R.: The change concerned the legal recognition of degrees awarded by the [university in] Florence through its Faculty of Theology. This was an important step that finally did justice to the academic caliber of the studies conducted at the Villa Aurora Faculty.
Today, we are dealing with further additions to that recognition with regard to doctoral degrees, which we hope will come to fruition.
L. F.: For over three decades, we Adventists have enjoyed this law. What about the other denominations? Can we do anything about it?
D. R.: The Adventist Church has, as it were, in its DNA, the vocation to defend the religious and worship freedom of all faiths. Those who claim rights only for themselves harm the cause of human rights. We are, therefore, already committed to ensuring that other churches and religions obtain what our Constitution guarantees them in Articles 3, 8, 19, and 20.
In the meantime, it must be recognized that the religious, social, and political framework has changed profoundly today. The mechanism of understandings, which, in 1946 (when the Constitution was being discussed), represented a miniaturized declination of the pact model between the State and the Catholic Church reaffirmed in Article 7, is ill-suited to the extreme plurality of the religious phenomenon in our country, on the one hand, and the crisis of the major ideologically-rooted political parties, on the other.
There has been an urgent need, for many years now, for a framework law that would save the agreements and better specify the process but, at the same time, guarantee an acceptable level of legal certainty to all religious (or non-religious) denominations even without an agreement. This goal seemed close in the 1990s and, above all, in the first decade of the new century, and it was always missed by a whisker. Today, it seems, for many reasons, to be receding. But we cannot afford reluctance and yielding without violating the faith and consciences of millions. We will therefore need new passion and new impetus to be present in the public space and in the political arena, with our own proposal for freedom and a recognizable profile.
To read the original interview, please go here.