The Triumph of the CrossItalian minister responds to European court: 'We will not remove crucifixes from the classroom'
Rome, Italy, November 4 (CNA) .- Italy's Minister of Education, Mariastella Gelmini, has rejected the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of removing crucifixes from public schools. She stated, "Nobody, much less a European court that is steeped in ideology, will be allowed to strip our identity away."
The court ruled the presence of crucifixes in classrooms could be a "bother" to students who practice other faiths or who are atheists and that the State should abstain from imposing beliefs in public places. "Religious neutrality should be observed in the context of public education," the court ruled.
The case was filed before the court by an Italian mother of two boys ages 11 and 13 who attended public school from 2001-2002 in the town of Abano Terme in northeastern Italy. Crucifixes were hung in each classroom.
After losing in the Italian courts, the woman filed her suit before the European Court, which ruled in her favor and ordered that she be paid 5,000 euros in damages. Italian officials said the ruling would be appealed.
Minister Gelmini rejected the ruling and told reporters, "The presence of crucifixes in the classroom does not signify adhesion to Catholicism, but rather represent our tradition."
"The history of Italy is full of symbols and if they are eliminated, a part of us will end up be eliminated," she said.
After noting that nobody "in this country wants to impose the Catholic religion," she noted that the Italian constitution "rightly recognizes the value of the Catholic religion for our society."
Italy's Minister of Agriculture, Luca Zaia, also deplored the ruling and said, "The Court has decided that crucifixes offend the sensibilities of non-Christians. It's the Court that is offending the sentiments of the European peoples who have their origin in Christianity. What an embarrassment!"
In addition, former Minister of Culture, Rocco Buttiglione, said the ruling was "abhorrent." He called for it to be strongly rejected saying, "Italy has its culture, its traditions and its history. Those who come among us should understand and accept this culture and this history," he added.
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The European government has forgotten it Christian heritage. It just sad, pretty soon Christianity will be out of Europe. Satan is working little by little to turn people to forget Christ.
ReplyDeletepro deo et eccliessia fr. abe one thing that troubled in my mine is that among those believes and practices which is true. i know the catholic claim also that they are true but as a matter of fact our ancestors,before the christianity was introduce in 1521 they have thier own belief and practices. Now if we could remember that cristianity was only introduced by the first invadors to us. this is not our belief in short.
ReplyDelete[The European government has forgotten it Christian heritage. It just sad, pretty soon Christianity will be out of Europe. Satan is working little by little to turn people to forget Christ.]
ReplyDeleteIt is true that Satan is working to destroy the faith. But the Lord Jesus promised that the Gate of Hell shall not prevail against the Church. However, that divine promise must not let us be lax in our proclamation of the Gospel. It must inspire us to deepen our faith, study it so that we can proclaim it in full splendor. It is also necessary to defend the faith from those who are trying to destroy it.
[pro deo et eccliessia fr. abe one thing that troubled in my mine is that among those believes and practices which is true. i know the catholic claim also that they are true but as a matter of fact our ancestors,before the christianity was introduce in 1521 they have thier own belief and practices. Now if we could remember that cristianity was only introduced by the first invadors to us. this is not our belief in short.]
ReplyDeleteThe faith of our ancestors before the coming of Christianity were paganism, spiritism and Islam. Paganism and spiritism are of course contrary to Christianity and therefore must be rejected. Those are devil-worship.
Well, Islam is still present in the country until now.
On the part of the Catholic Church, it is years prior to Islam and its coming in our land is one of the positive effects of the Spanish Conquests. Despite the fact that I abhor the Spanish Invasion of our land, still I am grateful for our Christian Faith. I prefer being Catholic than being a pagan, a spiritist or a Moslem.