Italy is “a clerical dictatorship,” says one former Italian member of Parliament.

“Our Constitution says that there is no state religion, but in reality that isn’t the case,” said Giorgio Villella of the Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics in January.

The Vatican has been calling the shots surprisingly often in Italy over the past few months. It is using Italy to influence the European Union, and even the United Nations. Many of its dictates may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but when viewed as part of the Vatican’s growing, global lust for power, they are clearly part of a dangerous trend.

Consider the atheist bus campaign. In Britain, the United States, Canada and Spain, atheist organizations have sponsored ads on the sides of buses that proclaim God’s supposed nonexistence. Nonbelievers displayed a slogan on the side of 800 buses in Britain in January, for example, that read: “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

The campaign was less successful in Italy. The Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (uraa) planned to run an ad in Genoa stating, “The bad news is that God doesn’t exist. The good news is that you don’t need Him.”

When head of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco—who lives in Genoa—found out about the ads, he was said to be “furious.” He immediately wrote to igp Decaux, the advertising agency that handles advertising on the city buses. The agency subsequently canceled the campaign.

The uraa was later allowed to use the watered-down slogan, “The good news is there are millions of atheists in Italy; the excellent news is they believe in freedom of expression.”

Giorgio Villella blames the Vatican. To be fair, Australian advertising agencies also refused to run the campaign. But this is the least of the Vatican’s interventions in Italy.

The case of Eluana Englaro captured the imagination of Italians for years. Ms. Englaro had lived in a vegetative state since 1992. Her father wanted the doctors to stop feeding her and let her die. The courts ruled in her father’s favor.

But then the Vatican got involved. Politicians and commentators said that senior Italian cardinals and the Vatican forced Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government to step in at the last minute, according to the Financial Times.

On February 6, doctors began to restrict Ms. Englaro’s food intake. On the same day, Berlusconi’s government passed an emergency decree forbidding doctors from withholding food. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano refused to sign the decree, calling it unconstitutional. Berlusconi said he would take the issue to Parliament to force Napolitano to sign. But time was against the Vatican and Berlusconi. Ms. Englaro died on February 9, three days later.

There is far more to this than the Vatican fighting secular politicians over one isolated case. If Berlusconi had succeeded in passing the decree, he would have overridden a decision made by the Supreme Court. Berlusconi is already above the law: He passed a law last year making himself immune from prosecution. With the power to overrule the Supreme Court, he would have put himself above Italy’s Constitution.

Although Berlusconi is barred from taking communion, he has a good working relationship with the Catholic Church. He does what it wants, and it gives him power. He came to power last year because of the Vatican.

Last week, the Vatican made one of its biggest bids for power yet. This time, it used its control of Italy to influence the world.

A UN declaration of intent on tackling drug abuse is due to be signed on March 11. The EU negotiated as a bloc in order to back greater emphasis on “harm reduction” in combating drugs. Harm reduction includes things like needle exchanges (giving addicts access to clean needles), drug replacement therapy and keeping nonviolent young criminals out of prison.

The U.S., Russia and Japan are currently opposed to harm reduction. But, by working together, it looked like European nations were going to win.

Then Italy jumped ship. On February 26, the EU Observer reported:

But Italy has now come out against the common position on harm reduction, in a surprise move that could undermine EU effectiveness in the UN talks, Italian opposition mps Marco Perduca and Donatella Poretti told this website.The move, made on the insistence of national anti-drugs czar Carlo Giovanardi, comes just days after the Holy See on February 12 issued a communique condemning harm reduction as “anti-life.”

The Catholic Church’s fingerprints are clear for all to see. “The Vatican’s last-minute intervention appears to have led to Italy withdrawing from the EU consensus on the issue and thrown the talks over the declaration into confusion,” Duncan Campbell wrote for Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

“It’s puzzling why Italy continues with some harm reduction measures domestically, while it seems now [to be] opposing them at the international level,” said Kassia Malinowska, director of the Open Society Institute global drugs program. “It looks like they have capitulated to a public health policy dictated to them by the church.”

“The conservative parties in Italy, when it comes to these moral issues, regularly take their opinions from the position of the Holy See,” said Mr. Perduca.

The Vatican runs Italy. And what’s more, it is using Italy to influence more of the world.

So far the issues at stake are comparatively trivial. But the Vatican has bigger goals.

A few examples: It is heavily involved in efforts to get the EU to foist Sunday worship on everyone in the Union. Pope Benedict xvi has called for France to end its long history of being a secular state. The Vatican is fighting the secular government in Spain.

The Catholic Church’s ambitions go far beyond Italy and drug control. For more on the Vatican’s plans for Europe, read our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.