Scientists say nullo modo to Pope

When Marcello Cini, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Rome La Sapienza, heard that Pope Benedict XVI was the invited speaker at La Sapienza's academic year inaugural ceremony on January 16, 2008, he wrote a remonstrating letter to the university's rector, Renato Guarini. Professor Cini also sent a copy to one of Rome's major newspapers, il manifesto, which published it on November 14, 2007. The letter listed a number of reasons why the pope was seen by many as a symbol antithetical to the mission of the university.

Historically, the honor of opening La Sapienza's school year is given to academics, not to religious leaders or politicians. La Sapienza was founded as a Catholic college by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303, but it has been a secular institution since 1870. Cini raised the objection that inviting the pope to open the academic year conferred the appearance of continuing papal involvement in the affairs of the university. The letter also criticized the pope's public statements supportive of Galileo's excommunication, intelligent design, and the existence of reasoning higher than rational thought.

La Sapienza physicist Carlo Cosmeli read Cini's letter in il manifesto and agreed that the symbofism of having Pope Benedict XVI open the academic year would besmirch the university's persona. Cosmeli composed his own letter of protest to the rector. This letter asked the rector to withdraw the invitation, as the pope's position on science "offends and humiliates us." The letter was signed by sixty-seven members of La Sapienza's science faculty and personally delivered to the rector on November 20. "The letter was delivered to Renato Guarini personally and with discretion," wrote Giorgio Parisi, the distinguished theoretical physicist, in an e-mail on January 26, 2008. Parisi is one of the letter's signatories. Nevertheless, a copy of the letter found its way to the press, fueling the public controversy.

Cini's letter in il manifesto served to herald the pope's visit to La Sapienza to the rest of Rome as well. Many students and others not associated with the school objected fiercely to the Vatican's meddling in Italian politics on the issues of homosexual and reproductive rights. These groups planned demonstrations to publicize their objections to Vatican policies at Internet speed. The addition of gay and reproductive rights to the protest radicalized opposition to the pope's appearance at La Sapienza.

Rector Guarini's response was the issuance of a campus-wide ban on all demonstrations during the pope's visit. The students countered. They occupied the rector's offices, hanging banners of protest out the windows. Finally an agreement was reached between Guarini and the students. The students would be allowed to demonstrate but only in a specified area away from the ceremonies, and amplified sound was prohibited. In addition, only those holding university IDs would be allowed to enter the school during the pope's presence, constraining the protest to students and faculty.

Finally, the Vatican gave in. In its ANSA press release on January 15, 2008, it stated: "Following the widely noted vicissitudes of recent days ... it was considered opportune to postpone the event."

Pope Benedict XVI earned the nickname "God's Rottweiler" while a cardinal, and he has worn the sobriquet well as pope. For example, after giving a speech at Rosenburg University in 2006 that inflamed the Muslim world, the pope made a trip to Turkey. Mobs of angry Turks were apparently less threatening to the pope than La Sapienza's physicists.

Politicians, such as the president, prime minister, and mayor of Rome, as well as Vatican spokespersons, condemned the La Sapienza faculty and students who campaigned against the pope's appearance at the school. Accusations were made that scientists and secularists were censuring His Holiness because the message he carried was too threatening--the pope had to be silenced! The vicar of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, called for Italians to show solidarity with the pope by coming to the Vatican to pray on Sunday, January 20, and they did. Three hundred thousand of the faithful crowded into Vatican Square chanting support for the pope and decrying those who would not allow him the constitutional right of free speech. Cini, author of the letter that started it all, said: "The pope now plays the victim."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

What a coup, but why? Italian politics is better understood if the country is viewed as two countries, not as one. One country was created by the unification of the Italian independent states in 1870. The second country is the Vatican--an almost two-thousand-year-old remnant of the Holy Roman Empire. While the rest of Europe won autonomy from the Holy Roman Emperor after the Thirty Years War in 1648, Italy has not been able to completely break free. Since World War II, Italy has endured rapidly changing weak governments, a problem many blame on papal meddling in politics. A brilliantly insightful analogy by Peter Popham, published in Britain's The Independent on February 26, 2007, puts it well: