A good blow was dealt by the numerous scandals of sexual abuses committed by members of the Catholic Church, over which it remained silent for decades before ceding under public pressure. First of all the growing secularism of Italian population. With the turn of the millennium, however, this cultural taboo is showing signs of strains of numerous reasons. hegemony over Italians, its opposition to dissolution of marriage and abortion until the 70s and same-sex marriage in more recent decades. Common criticism targeted the generous tax exemptions the Church enjoyed from the Italian state, its cultural and political note In the heat of the Cold War, the Church explicitly invited Catholics to vote for the Christian Democracy and excommunicated catholics with communist ideals. Since the birth of the Italian Republic, the Church was often attacked as being responsible of slowing down social progress in Italy. It has an enormously worse connotation than, for example, 'holy fuck' has been reason enough to expel someone or have the broadcast suspended. The most used curse, porco Dio, can be intended as 'that swine/crook of God'. On TV, pronouncing a blasphemous profanity note note the presence in Italian language of bestemmie, that are profanities intended to be direct insults against God or religious figures. There's still a strong taboo towards black humour, satire or, in worst cases, even criticism directed against Christianity as religion or Catholicism as institution. This is unsurprising, considering that The Pope pretty much lives there note technically he resides in Vatican City, formerly a quarter of Rome that was politically made a microstate.

The Catholic Church herselfThe Catholic Church has an enormous importance in the Italian traditional culture.

Grezzo 2 storyline