Religion In Italy

(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - A landmark European Court ruling against crosses in classrooms doesn't oblige Italy to take them down, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Friday.

"It is not a coercive sentence and there's nothing stopping us keeping the crucifixes in the classrooms," the premier said.

Therefore, he said, a proposed referendum to keep the crosses was not needed.

Nonetheless, after almost a week of popular outrage, Italy is appealing the sentence by the European Court of Human Rights.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 4 - Pumpkins will be more common than crosses in Italian classrooms if a European court ruling is confirmed, the Vatican's top official said Wednesday.

''This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us with Halloween pumpkins and takes away our dearest symbols,'' said the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Bertone, the Vatican's equivalent of an interior minister, said he had not yet spoken to Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday's ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordering Italy to remove crosses from classrooms.

''I'll see (the pope) tomorrow,'' Bertone said.

(Corrects court's acronym from 'ECtHR' to 'ECHR'). (ANSA) - Vatican City, November 4 - Pumpkins will be more common than crosses in Italian classrooms if a European court ruling is confirmed, the Vatican's top official said Wednesday.

''This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us with Halloween pumpkins and takes away our dearest symbols,'' said the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 3 - Italy has appealed a landmark European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling against crucifixes in Italian classrooms that sparked a storm Tuesday in this heavily Catholic country.

The appeal was announced by Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini who stressed that crosses were ''a symbol of Italian tradition'' and did not signify affiliation to the Catholic Church.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 3 - Immigrants living in Italy should be entitled to Italian citizenship, the Vatican's 'migrant minister' Antonio Maria Veglio'' said on Tuesday.

Presenting the Vatican's upcoming 6th World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, Archbishop Veglio' said he saw ''no reason'' why immigrants who respect Italy's laws and boost its wealth should not be granted citizenship.

(ANSA) - Brussels, November 3 - Italy's new opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani said a European court ruling against crosses in Italian schools trumped common sense.

''I think that on delicate issues like this, sometimes common sense falls victim to the law,'' said Bersani, who was recently elected head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

''I think a longstanding tradition like the crucifix can't be offensive to anyone,'' said Bersani, a former Communist.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 3 - Tuesday's European Court of Human Rights ruling against crosses in Italian classrooms was biased, the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) said.

''On the basis of a first reading, it appears to be possible to detect...a biased and ideological view,'' CEI said in a statement.

Earlier, the Vatican said it would wait to examine the Court's explanation for its ruling before reacting. photo: CEI head Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco

(ANSA) - Marrakech, November 3 - The European Court of Human Rights ruling that crosses in Italian classrooms flout religious freedom is a ''death blow for a Europe of values and rights,'' Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Tuesday.

Frattini said Europe's roots lay in its ''Christian identity''.

He added that Tuesday's ruling was ''a very bad precedent for other religions''.

''At a time when we're trying to bring religions closer, the Christian religion gets whacked''.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 3 - A European court ruling barring crosses from Italian classrooms is ''irresponsible,'' a top Italian bishop said Tuesday.

''It is really irresponsible to want to cancel...the cultural and educational weight'' of the crucifix, said Msgr Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Italian bishops' intercultural dialogue commission.

The European Court of Human Rights upheld a suit from a Finnish-born Italian citizen Tuesday, saying the crosses in her children's classrooms flouted freedom of religion.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 3 - Italy said Tuesday it would appeal a landmark European ruling against crucifixes in classrooms.

A successful appeal would lead to Tuesday's ruling being reconsidered, state judge Nicola Lettieri said, but the verdict will become effective in three months if the appeal is turned down.

The Council of Europe will then have six months to decide what action the Italian government should take to avoid future suits, Lettieri said.

Earlier Tuesday, in its first such ruling, the European Court of Human Rights found that crucifixes in Italian classrooms were a violation of parents' rights to educate their kids according to their principles.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 3 - The Vatican said Tuesday it would await the exact wording of a landmark European ruling against crucifixes in classrooms before making a formal response.

''I believe reflection is needed before commenting,'' said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

In its first such ruling, the European Court of Human Rights found that crucifixes in Italian classrooms were a violation of parents' rights to educate their kids according to their principles.

(ANSA) - Strasbourg, November 3 - In a legal landmark that sparked a storm in Italy, the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled that crucifixes in Italian classrooms were a violation of parents' rights to educate their kids according to their principles.

Upholding a plea from a Finnish immigrant to Italy, the Strasbourg-based court also said the crosses ran counter to a child's own rights to freedom of religious choice.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, October 30 - Pope Benedict XVI will receive the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, on November 31, the Vatican confirmed Friday.

William was already scheduled to visit for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Catholic ecumenical pioneer Johannes Willebrands but his trip has assumed greater significance since an October 20 announcement that the Vatican was setting up a new section to help Anglicans who want to convert to Catholicism.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, October 29 - Halloween is anti-Christian and sends dangerous occult messages, the Vatican reiterated Thursday.

In an article entitled Halloween's Dangerous Messages, Holy See newspaper l'Osservatore Romano quoted liturgical expert Joan Maria Canals as saying ''Halloween has an undercurrent of occultism and is absolutely anti-Christian''.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, October 29 - Pope Benedict XVI voiced optimism in Iran's willingness to cooperate with the international community during a meeting on Thursday with Tehran's new ambassador to the Holy See.

The pope also told Ali Akbar Naseri that Iran's tradition of spirituality was ''a reason to hope for its increasing openness and confident cooperation with the international community''.