Christ came to take away sin by his sacrifice on the cross, the Sunday reading from the Letter to the Hebrews tells us. In a decision that has angered many Italians, a European court Tuesday ruled that displaying crucifixes in the country's schools violated the principle of secular education.

The European Court of Human Rights said Italy's practice of displaying crucifixes in classrooms "restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions, and the right of children to believe or not to believe."

The court ordered the Italian state to pay damages to a woman who had lodged a complaint with the court in 2006, alleging the display of crucifixes had prevented her from raising her children according to secular values. The court didn't order Italy to take crucifixes off the walls, but the decision, if upheld, would be binding on Italy as one of 47 countries that have signed the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.

In recent years a divide has opened in Europe between countries that strictly interpret the separation between church and state and those where Christian traditions still hold considerable sway. Generations of Italian children have grown up studying in classrooms with crucifixes on the wall. Many public schools continue to offer the "religion hour," an optional course on Catholic teachings.

Italy has changed in the past two decades, however, from a country that exported migrants to one that has accepted about 4.5 million economic refugees and asylum seekers from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, raising tensions with regard to questions of religious diversity. "The presence of the crucifix could be . . . disturbing for pupils who practiced other religions or were atheists, particularly if they belonged to religious minorities," the court said.

Italian officials said they will appeal the ruling. "You can't build a united Europe by eliminating the traditions of individual countries," said Mariastella Gelmini, Italy's education minister. "The crucifix represents Italy and defending its presence in schools means defending our tradition."

Gelmini, a member of the conservative government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said that "no one, and certainly not an ideological European court, will succeed in erasing our identity." The Vatican said it wanted to study the exact wording of the ruling before issuing a response.

 

Source: Articles by Stacy Meichtry for the Wall Street Journal and Nick Squires for the Christian Science Monitor