Rome, Italy, Jun 14, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Church officials and leaders in Italy have welcomed the results of a failed referendum that could have lifted the country’s restrictions on in vitro fertilization and embryonic research. The referendum June 12-13 was invalidated due to low voter turnout (25.9 percent). A turnout of more than 50 percent was required to make the vote valid.
Church leaders and, in particular, Camillo Cardinal Ruini, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, had urged Catholics to boycott the referendum.
Cardinal Ruini said he did not see the result as a victory for Catholicism, but as a sign that Italians are not prepared to discard all restraints on artificial human reproduction, reported CWNews.
"What really won was the moral conscience of our people and the future of man himself," the cardinal said Monday in an interview on Canale 5.