Jesus is in Favor: Catholicism and Assisted Reproduction in Italy

While religion is part of the modernities of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), this has mainly been investigated in non-Western or non-Christian contexts. In this article, I argue that in contemporary Italy, Catholicism affects not only law- and policymaking processes but also (prospective) parents’ experiences of ART and donor conception in contradictory and unexpected ways. Officially, the Roman Church strongly opposes ART, but Catholic principles, affiliations, and rituals are mobilized in ways that contribute to legitimizing and making sense of ART as a means to create kinship and reproduce Italian national identity.