(Nov.04,2009): The Vatican expressed astonishment and regret at Tuesday's decision
from the European Court of Human Rights that crucifixes in public school classrooms
are a violation of freedom. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican
press office on Tuesday, gave a brief statement to Vatican Radio in response to
the decision. "The crucifix has always been a sign of God's offer of love, of union
and of welcome for the whole of humanity," the spokesman said. "It is to be regretted
that it has come to be considered as a sign of division, of exclusion and of limitation
of liberty. It is not this, and it is not so in the common feeling of our people,"
said Fr. Lombardi. The Italian government protested the ruling, having contended
that crucifixes, often hung in Italian public schools are a national symbol of culture
and history. Father Lombardi echoed this idea. He called particularly grave "the
desire to set aside from the educational world, a fundamental sign of the importance
of religious values in Italian history and culture." He added that "religion makes
a precious contribution to a person's formation and moral growth, and is an essential
component of our civilization. It is mistaken and myopic to want to exclude it from
the educational realm. It is astonishing then that a European court should intervene
weightily in a matter profoundly linked to the historical, cultural and spiritual
identity of the Italian people," the Vatican spokesman stated. "It seems," he suggested,
"that there is a desire to ignore the role of Christianity in the formation of European
identity, which instead has been and remains essential."