In the article “The Battle for Divorce in Italy and Opposition from the Catholic World (1861-1974)”, Daniela Saresella argues that following World War II, the “processes of secularization” (Saresella, 411) that were altering the western world, took hold in Italy and set the stage for the 1974 referendum on divorce. The referendum was an integral moment as it marked the first division of the Catholic world and allowed Catholic citizens the understanding that they were not required to vote in alignment with the Catholic Democracy, the political party in power in Italy at this time. Saresella provides a foundation for this argument by providing one with a historical account of divorce in Italy from its introduction by the French during its occupation
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As demonstrated, Saresella presents the hisotircal landscape in an ideaographic and empirical manner with concern to the contingency of events and how they led to referendum of 1974. As well, Saresella also supports the agency of the individual actors, like in the case of Fausto Coppie and Guila Occhini. Their actions and the actions of the actors mentioned throughout the article were their own, concerned with how divorce affected them and not worried about their actions would affect the course of divorce in Italy overall. Saresella also presents us the historical record of divorce in Italy in such a way as to allow us to understand that “every epoch has…its own ideal (Ranke, 21) by presenting the history of divorce across its entire course. By doing so it is illustrated how opinions on divorce went through several iterations, most of them negative due to bias from the Catholic church, and establishing that the referendum to legalize divorce could only have succeeded in the era that it did, which is an integral part of Saresella’s argument that “the processes of secularization…. had conditioned Italian society and politics” (Saresella, 411) and made it ripe for the referendum to
As demonstrated, Saresella presents the hisotircal landscape in an ideaographic and empirical manner with concern to the contingency of events and how they led to referendum of 1974. As well, Saresella also supports the agency of the individual actors, like in the case of Fausto Coppie and Guila Occhini. Their actions and the actions of the actors mentioned throughout the article were their own, concerned with how divorce affected them and not worried about their actions would affect the course of divorce in Italy overall. Saresella also presents us the historical record of divorce in Italy in such a way as to allow us to understand that “every epoch has…its own ideal (Ranke, 21) by presenting the history of divorce across its entire course. By doing so it is illustrated how opinions on divorce went through several iterations, most of them negative due to bias from the Catholic church, and establishing that the referendum to legalize divorce could only have succeeded in the era that it did, which is an integral part of Saresella’s argument that “the processes of secularization…. had conditioned Italian society and politics” (Saresella, 411) and made it ripe for the referendum to