Identità religiosa e culturale europea: la questione del crocifisso

The presence of the crucifix in classrooms in Italy was considered incompatible with freedom of religion and education by the Strasbourg Court with a judgment (Lautsi) that seem to conflict with the steady case law of the same Court, which gives the States a wide margin of appreciation on religious freedom, to this end referring to the tradition of each country. The judgment dismissing his own evaluation criterion that requires examining the historical and cultural context comes, with a kind of iconoclastic secularism, to a limited and misleading concept of educating the new generations. Indeed, if one conceives religious symbols as something negative and disturbing, children will grow up with a sense of hostility towards these symbols as if they were factors of division, and the relationship between religions would become a distrustful relationship, potentially hostile and confrontational. Without then considering the fact that the rights of a religious majority should be protected with the same care as those of minorities.

Carlo Cardia, Identità religiosa e culturale europea: la questione del crocifisso in "CITTADINANZA EUROPEA (LA)" 1,2/2010, pp 33-66, DOI: 10.3280/CEU2010-001003