With all due respect due to a great Pope... his appeal can be compared to the Taleban's extreme resistance in Afghanistan

Corriere della Sera newspaper

The Pope said on Monday that lawyers should refuse to collaborate with the "evil" of divorce, and should no longer handle cases.

Judges should also try to avoid hearing cases, the Pope said, and where they had no choice, they should always work to bring couples back together.

In Italy, the Pope's comments were met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction, and were seen by some as an attempt to clamp down on divorce, legalised only in the 1970s.

I think Catholic lawyers will take the view that people should be able to choose who represents them

John Wilkins Editor, The Tablet

"We find it rich that His Holiness, whose religious authority we respect, incites judges and magistrates not to apply the law of the state," said Aitanga Giraldi, of the major trades union CGIL.

Justice Minister Roberto Castelli said magistrates who refused to hear divorce cases would be guilty of civil disobedience.

'Civil disobedience'

"The Pope's appeal is that of a religious head, but the (Italian) constitution says that a magistrate is subject to the law and the Italian law is clear," Mr Castelli said.

And centrist politician Marco Follini, of the CCD party, said: "While I think conscientious objection in general should be respected and broadened, I don't think a judge can shrink from the duties of his office."

Public notaries are experts in law regarding all the social problems of their citizens, whatever their beliefs, and we fully respect those beliefs

Spanish notaries' association

One opinion poll, carried out in Italy by Datamedia, found that 87.5% of those questioned disagreed with the Pope.

Italian papers were also scathing. Corriere della Sera accused the Pope of fundamentalist behaviour.

"With all due respect due to a great Pope... his appeal for conscientious objection against divorce... can be compared to the Taleban's extreme resistance in Afghanistan," said the paper.

But the Pope won support from the Northern League, a right-wing junior partner in the coalition government headed by Silvio Berlusconi.

A party spokesman on family issues, Francesca Martini, called "divorce a move which is being abused."

Divorce 'tide'

In the UK, the editor of the Catholic newpaper, The Tablet, John Wilkins, said he was proud to belong to a church with a leader who could "put the boot into a whole culture in this way".

"Divorce is a plague. One in two new marriages break down. Research findings are overwhelmingly clear that divorce is bad for children, unless there is violence," he said.

"But in a western, pluralistic society, where absolute respect for your neighbour underlies the culture, I think Catholic lawyers will take the view that people should be able to choose who represents them."

In Spain, the 3,000 public notaries who issue divorce papers would not launch new attempts at reconciliation, their professional body, the General Council of Notaries, told BBC News Online.

It is a matter of conscience for lawyers as to whether to accept or not accept clients

French lawyer Thierry Massis

"Public notaries are experts in law regarding all the social problems of their citizens, whatever their beliefs, and we fully respect those beliefs," said Juan Bolas, president of the council.

French lawyer Thierry Massis told BBC News Online he believed the Pope's decision to act had been prompted by the rising tide of divorce across Europe.

And he pointed out that the Pope had left it open for lawyers to help couples with issues surrounding divorce, such as care of children.

"It is a matter of conscience for lawyers as to whether to accept or not accept clients," he said.

"The Pope cannot pronounce on that.

"If a couple come to you in great distress you have to help them."

Some church law experts believe that the distinction between helping people get a divorce, and helping them with surrounding issues, will be impossible to make in practice.

One unnamed lawyer even accused the Pope of "other-wordly" thinking.