Landmark ruling: Italian court allows four-year-old to have three legally-recognized parents

ROME - An Italian court decision has granted a 4-year-old child three legally recognised parents - two fathers and one mother - in a landmark ruling that has angered conservative Catholics.

The decision was reported on Tuesday by several Italian media outlets and confirmed by Pasqua Manfredi, the lawyer of one of the boy's fathers.

The child was born in Germany and lives there with two men who are married, one of whom is the biological parent, who fathered him with a woman who is a friend of the couple.

The non-biological father, who is Italo-German, then adopted the child under German law, but he applied for that adoption to also be recognised in Italy.

A local authority rejected the request, suspecting that the child was born from surrogacy carried out abroad - a practice that Italy's conservative government has criminalised.

A court of appeal in the southern Italian city of Bari overturned the decision, accepting that there were no surrogacy arrangements in the family.

The ruling, which is final, means that Italy, like Germany, accepts that the child has two legally recognised fathers, and one mother.

"There was no secret surrogacy deal here, this is a case of three people who all want to be the parents of this child, and the court recognised this," Manfredi told Reuters.

The ruling is from January, but it was publicised as Italy marked the 10th anniversary since parliament voted to legalise same-sex partnerships.

Pro Vita & Famiglia, a Catholic group that campaigns for what it calls traditional family values, condemned the ruling and said legal recognition of same-sex unions had "upended family law, exposing minors to all kinds of social and ideological experimentations".

Alvise Armellini; Editing by Alison Williams/Reuters