Italy 1 | Vatican 0

Religion • Ban Cross • Vatican • Italy • Jehovah’s Witness

Vatican’s fury as court bans crucifixes in Italian classrooms
because they ‘breach religious rights of children’

Crucifixes have been banned in Italian schools by a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.

The decision has enraged politicians, with Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini saying: ‘This is a death blow for a Europe of values and rights.

‘Europe’s roots lie in its Christian identity. At a time when we’re trying to bring religions closer, the Christian religion gets whacked.

‘The government will appeal.’

The case was brought by a Finnish woman, Soile Lautsi, who is married to an Italian.

Both are atheists. She had complained that her children had to attend a school in northern Italy which had crucifixes in every room, as laid down in law as a reflection of the country’s Roman Catholic heritage.

The European court’s ruling, which will be enforced in three months, said crucifixes could disturb children who were not Christians.

It could force a Europe-wide review of the use of religious symbols in government-run schools.

The court rejected arguments by Italy’s government that the crucifix was a national symbol of culture, history and identity, tolerance and secularism.

And it ordered the Italian government to pay 5000 Euro moral damages to Lautsi.

The judgment said that having a crucifix in the classroom was a ‘violation of the right to parents to educate children as to their own wishes and a violation of liberty of religion of pupils’.

Italy has been in the throes of national debate on how to deal with a growing population of immigrants, mostly Muslims, and the court sentence is likely to become another battle cry for the centre-right government’s policy to restrict newcomers.

Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said having a cross in the classroom was ‘ a symbol of our tradition.’

Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini introduced legislation in 1924 ordering all classrooms to display crucifixes. Despite several attempts to have the law overturned in recent years it has stood.

Mrs Lautsi, a Finnish national, said that she felt having a crucifix in the classroom where her children Dataico, 11, and Sami Albertin, 13, were taught was a ‘violation of their freedom’ and of ‘right to freedom of religion’.

The eight-year case centered on a State primary school in Abano Terme near Padua in northern Italy and she brought the case to Strasbourg after her local court threw it out.
Pope Benedict XVI prays underneath the Saint Damian Crucifix inside Saint Claire Basilica in Assisi, Italy in 2007. The Vatican is said to be furious about the European ruling

Pope Benedict XVI prays underneath the Saint Damian Crucifix inside Saint Claire Basilica in Assisi, Italy, in 2007. The Vatican is said to be furious at the ruling

Today in a 16-page decision the seven judges of the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in her favor, saying: ‘The presence of the crucifix could easily be interpreted by pupils of all ages as a religious sign and they would feel that they were being educated in a school environment bearing the stamp of a given religion.

‘This could be encouraging for religious pupils, but also disturbing for pupils who practised other religions or were atheists, particularly if they belonged to religious minorities.’

The court added that secular, state-run schools must ‘observe confessional neutrality in the context of public education,’ where attendance is compulsory.

It further rejected Italian legal arguments that the crucifix was somehow a symbol that promoted pluralism.

Today a Vatican spokesman said: ‘We will look closely at the judgement before making any comment.’

However a Vatican source said: ‘This goes completely against the grain and we are furious at this decision.’

Conservative Catholic politicians were also furious with Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia of the Northern League calling it ’shameful’ and a member of PM Silvio
Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party, Antonio Mazzocchi, saying that Europe was forgetting its Christian heritage.

Alessandra Mussolini, whose grandfather brought in the legislation, stormed: ‘This is an attempt to erase our Christian roots. They are trying to create a Europe without identity and tradition.’

Crucifixes are common in Italian public buildings despite the postwar Constitution’s separation of Church and State. In practice, with Catholicism being such a part of Italy’s cultural identity, local bodies decide whether they want crosses in schools and courthouses, and the majority of them do.

There has been outrage in the past after it emerged some Italian schools had dropped Nativity plays and Easter plays so as not offend Muslim pupils and other religions.