Civil Religion

In Rome, on February 24, 1530, Pope Clement VII placed the ancient crown of the Holy Roman Empire on the head of the 29-year-old Charles V of Habsburg. Born in Flanders, he became Duke of Burgundy and Lord of the Netherlands at the age of six, King of Castile and Aragon at 15, Archduke of Austria at 17, and, finally, King of the Romans three months after that. The last title belonged to the ruler of Germany before he was solemnly crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope.

It has been famously pointed out that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, but it was also not an empire in the sense people expect when hearing the term. In theory, the emperor was the highest prince in Christendom, and his dominion extended the length and breadth of Western Europe. The empire had been created by the papacy in 801 when Pope Leo III famously crowned the supposedly unwitting Charlemagne in Saint Peter’s Basilica, intending to recreate the Western Roman Empire. In truth, the imperial power did not extend beyond central Europe.

La parola “blasfemia” viene dal latino blasphemia, a sua volta derivata dal greco βλασφημ?α, blasphemía, vocabolo composto dal verbo βλ?πτειν, bláptein, “ingiuriare”, e dal sostantivo φ?μη/φ?μα, phéme/pháma, “reputazione”. Ingiuriare reputazione! La bestemmia o blasfemia è una locuzione con contenuti dissacranti e svalutanti verso Dio, verso i santi, o più in generale verso quanto appartiene al mondo di Dio. Non lo so quale è il paese del mondo dove si bestemmia di più? Sicuramente l’Italia è un campione.