I got a question for anybody. Is there really a "growing power of conservative Catholicism in Italy."? I'm surprised by that statement.
There were several articles on FR recently (I pinged some out) about a referendum held in Italy about, IIRC, cloning and possibly stem cell stuff. The Pope spoke out against it, or at least other Catholic Church higher ups, and urged people to note vote. If less than 50% of the electorate didn't vote, it was null and void. Less than 50% turned out to vote, and the whole thing was quite heated.
A number of public figures stated they weren't voting specifically to defeat it.