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Will Europe admit to being Christian?

By Alliance Alert

Gerald J. Russello writing in the National Catholic Register: "The [Italian crucifix-in-the-classroom] case explicitly confronts the central issue facing Europe: whether it will acknowledge its Christian heritage, or surrender to a false 'neutrality' that really means uniform submission to a certain understanding of secularization. ... This case brings to light exactly the risk against which [Pope Benedict XVI] has warned. On the one hand, the secular European human-rights courts feel free to disregard two millennia of history of Italy as a Christian nation, even though there was no actual harm shown in this case. Rather, the court relies on an abstract definition of 'rights' that trumps not only history but also political compromise. The thrust of the plaintiff?s case was essentially that her children might feel uncomfortable or pressured by the presence of the crucifixes, even though there was no religious instruction in the schools. A defeat for Italy here will open the way ? as it has in the United States ? for an assault on any accommodation the state makes to religious groups."

Full post as published by Constitutionally Correct on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).