Big win for the Vatican in European crucifix case [John Allen]

[Catholic_Press]

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

In a big win for the Vatican in terms of church/state relations in Europe, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has reversed an earlier ruling and upheld the right of Italy to display crucifixes in its public school classrooms.

Though the Vatican was not formally a party to the case, it strongly supported the position taken by Italy and a coalition of other European states, mostly drawn from the majority Orthodox regions of Eastern Europe, in defense of Italy’s right to have crucifixes in the classrooms.

The November 2009 ruling by the Court of Human Rights, which held that the display of crucifixes violated European standards of religious freedom, was widely seen in the Vatican as an indication that secular neutrality to religion in today’s Europe often shades off into overt hostility to religion.

Both the Vatican spokesperson, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, and the New York-based attorney who represented the coalition of states appealing the ruling, Joseph Weiler, today released statements, excerpts from which appear below.

Lombardi’s statement was released in Italian, and appears below in an NCR translation.

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