AS ITALY'S bishops concluded their general assembly on May 25th, some may have reflected on an irony in their situation. In a secular age, and 13 years after the collapse of the Christian Democratic party that used to represent their interests in politics, the church wields more direct influence in Italy than at any time in 40 years.
Over the past three years, church leaders and their parliamentary allies have fought three big battles and lost none. In 2004 a cross-party group of lawmakers drastically restricted the scope of a law on fertility treatment. A year later, the head of the church in Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, deftly foiled a bid to broaden the law in a referendum (he asked the faithful to abstain, robbing the vote of its quorum). And in February, when a former prime minister, Giulio Andreotti, now a life senator and ever the church's political man, nudged Romano Prodi's centre-left...
