Castellammare di Stabia ban miniskirts: “not too revealing” or violations up to $700. Ban Football Games in Public Parks & Squares, Blasphemy Out Loud

Castellammare di Stabia has decided to ban miniskirts. Any miniskirt that is deemed “too revealing” will not be allowed in the town, and violations can get fines of up to $700: a steep price in the relatively small town (whose modest incomes that would be devastated with such a fine). The town of Castellammare di Stabia had also grabbed headlines for a ban on football games in public parks and squares, and for banning anyone saying blasphemy out loud. The catholic town may only be re-embracing the catholic traditions of heresy trials and so forth, but what is more interesting is that to this town, and indeed all of Italy, just what qualifies as blasphemy: they equate the Pope as a holy being (”His Holiness”), and so words against him are equal to words against God (despite that the Bible defines blasphemy in two ways, one of which is any man who calls himself Holy). Italy doesn’t stand alone in this: Poland and Switzerland are also known to threaten jail for those who insult the Pope (on the grounds he is a head of state, not blasphemy grounds): but in Italy it’s already sent a comedian joking about the Pope to face 5 years in jail for “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” of Joseph Ratzinger.

While the town’s mayor, Luigi Bobbio justified their reactionary laws saying: “It’s a matter of common sense, of common decency”, but the laws have definitely sparked wildly differing reactions in Italy. But they might not be discussed openly: after all, it may be “blasphemy”.