Riflessioni di diritto comparato e canonico sull'obiezione di coscienza del pubblico funzionario

We witness nowadays a wave of judicial cases concerning the problem of the possible right to conscientious objection of those who exert public functions. The problem’s elements are two: on one hand, the existence of juridical principles and obligations incident to the civil service, which are able to lie more heavily on the public official’s freedom of conscience; on the other hand, the acknowledgement or the denial, by the legal order, of the right to object as specific content of freedom of conscience. In this perspective, the comparison between the French and the Italian legal orders can be useful to highlight which consequences come from different approaches. In another perspective, where State law does not recognize the conscientious objection of the public official, we can ask ourselves whether canon law can solve the conscientious conflict of catholic public officials, softening their canonical obligations.