An Italian high court ruled Wednesday that state-run schools were fully entitled to hang crucifixes in their classrooms, rejecting a legal challenge raised by a non-Christian Italian citizen.

According to the Independent Online news agency (IOL), Soile Lautsi, whose two children regularly attend a school in northern Italy's Veneto region, had argued that the crucifix on display there violates the principle that the state should be neutral when it comes to religious matters.

Italy's Constitutional Court, however, effectively rejected the challenge by arguing that the plaintiff was not entitled to raise the issue in court.

Although church and state are officially separated in Italy, a 1923 regulation issued during Benito Mussolini's Fascist rule and never repealed states that a symbol of the crucifix should hang in every classroom and courtroom in the country.

IOL reported that in recent years, the representation of the cross on which Jesus died has become the subject of a heated debate in Italy as Muslim groups and non-Christians seek its removal from state schools.

Last year, a judge in central Italy sparked outrage by ruling in favour of an Islamic activist and ordering that a crucifix be removed from the classroom of the state-run elementary school attended by his two sons.

The judge's verdict was eventually overruled amid widespread protests in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.




Kenneth Chan
Ecumenical Press