The sentence was issued July 18, but only in recent days has been widespread: thus it was discovered that the Tar (regional amministrative tribunal) of Lazio, with the ruling n. 7076 upheld the appeals submitted in 2007 by some students, who demanded the annulment of the ministerial decrees signed by the Minister Giuseppe Fioroni (later taken over the state examinations in 2007 and 2008) which gave religion credits for the State exam.The judges issuing their ruling also made reference to the laicism of the Italian state, stated by the constitutional court (sentence n.203/89), considered the state guarantee for the preservation of religious freedom.
The ruling was the result of a simple argument: the assignment of an educational credit to a range of religious students and their parents, results in a clear form of discrimination, given that the Italian state does not ensure the possibility for all citizens to achieve a credit in their religions or in public ethics. So the ruling said "the State, after having established the constitutional postulate of absolute, inviolable liberty of conscience in matters of religion and practice of any kind of religion, cannot give a dominant position to one confession. "
The ruling upheld, therefore, the demands made by various associations that wanted more secularity in the institutions.
This because, until now, who attended (in school) the hour of Catholic religion, not mandatory, could then use the credits received in the final exam. The Waldensian Church (Italy protestant church) said to be satisfied, because this decision "represents a step forward to a more equitable school, without distinction or privilege, and towards a more secular state ", said the head of the waldesian church, Maria Bonafede.
Not even a day of truce, and now the political and ecclesiastical world has begun to act against this decision.
Monsignor Diego Coletti, president of the Episcopal Commission for Catholic Education, said that the decision harms the secularism and is a symptom of the "more sinister Enlightenment who wants the cancellation of all identities."
He then stated that the church would not appeal the ruling because the issue was primarily against the Ministry of Education, as it was called into question his directive. "Secularism - explained the bishop of Como - was damaged by this ruling because secularism means the right of a neutral civil community that would be keen to improve all the identities, each according to their weight and cultural significance, on a given territory. "
Certainly there is no reason why improving all the identities means, in the end, improving only the Catholic Church, because other religions or other teachings were never considered in italian school or any school reform.
But Minister Mariastella Gelmini came to help the Church announcing the recourse to the Council of State against the decision of the Tar. Why? "Because the Catholic religion expresses a wealth of history, values and traditions so important that its uniqueness should be recognized and protected. The Catholics principles - she continued - are the heritage of everybody, they must be protected from certain forms of intolerant secularism. "
In a country where kids kill punching one of them, where one of the highest ambitions is to end up on television (probably naked), in which politicians (maximum representation of the people) are divorced and they lives with women without any marriage but with a couple of children, where a head of Government attended the minors, he is twice divorced, he organizes parties where hundreds of girls are moving in not so innocent attitudes, what is the point, for politics, to require the teaching of religion? For all these people what the teaching of religion produced? Were they always in the bathroom? Or, probably, defending the Church means, once again, expect something in return?
Marianna Lepore
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