VOTERS confused by the plethora of parties seeking their support in Italy's general election next month were told yesterday not to count on divine guidance.
In a sign that the days when the Catholic Church expected all good Italians to back its anointed party were over, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said the Holy See was staying out of the battle for votes on April 21th.
"The church ... should not involve itself in any sort of choice for this or that political alliance or party, and does not intend to," Cardinal Sodano told the newspaper La Republica.
He noted that Pope John Paul, accused of meddling during the last election in 1994, had told Italian bishops last November that while the church wanted Italians to espouse Christian values in political life it would not tell them who to vote for.
The Christian Democrat party governed Italy with Vatican blessing for more than four decades until its collapse in the political corruption scandals that swept the country.
Cardinal Sodano defended the Christian Democrat experience but appeared to bow to the inevitable conclusion that Catholics no longer had a clear choice in the political fragmentation that will confront voters.
"Every era has its own needs and Italy is changing as well," he said. "The people who until recently fought for political unity among Catholics have preferred to put an end to a unitary experience that lasted 45 years. That experience was opportune, indeed necessary, in view of the grave dangers facing the country.
The Christian Democrats kept the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from power at crucial general elections in 1948 and 1976.
The reformed PCI is now the dominant force in Italy's centreleft Olive Tree bloc. It is supporting Mr Romano Prodi, a Catholic economist who was long close to the Christian Democrats, for prime minister.
Other centrists plying for Catholic votes include the caretaker Prime Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, allied with the centre left, and the centre right politician, Mr Rocco Buttiglione, a philosopher who has helped to write papal encyclicals.