A new form of censorship - Archbishop

Archbishop Paul Cremona yesterday denounced the decision by the European Court of Human Rights to ban crucifixes in Italian classrooms as a "new form of censorship".

The Nationalist Party and Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat also disagreed with the court decision.

But experts in European law warned against judging the decision rashly and said the reasons and consequences behind it needed to be studied properly before commenting in detail.

Lawyers Ian Refalo and Peter Xuereb said the court's decision naturally had certain implications on Malta too because the island was a signed member of the European Convention of Human Rights. But the extent of this still had to be analysed.They stressed that Italy was appealing the court's decision, so the ban would only come into force if the final decision was confirmed by the appeals court.

Prof. Refalo said that if someone were to make a similar case against Malta it would be likely that the same decision would be made since a precedent had now been set.

But he was unable to say whether he agreed or not with the decision because he first had to study the judgment in detail.

"From what I've read, I can see the reasoning behind it and it's clear that a lot of thought has been put into it. It's not a decision that can easily be arrived at."

Prof. Xuereb felt the decision showed a movement towards a "particular brand of secularism", which will come as a shock to countries like Italy and Malta, although it was the one chosen in a country like France.

"At first glance, this is a rather bold position to take and it is bound to cause some difficulties in its application," Prof. Xuereb added, without saying whether he agreed or not with the decision.

In fact, people who expressed their views on timesofmalta.com feel this case paves the way for similar but more extreme decisions to be taken Europe-wide.

Speaking on PBS programme Bonġu, Mgr Cremona said everyone should enjoy the right to show their faith through images. "What freedom is it to ban everything?" Mgr Cremona asked.

He said the issue was not one between religions but the consequence of a European ideology that wanted to remove all expression of religion, whatever that religion was.

The controversial case was raised by a Finnish-born woman who wanted to raise her two children as non-Catholics in an Italian school. After taking her case to the Strasbourg court she won €5,000 damages as the court argued that the crucifixes violated religious and educational freedoms.

Mgr Cremona said the Church had long declared that all faiths should be free to express themselves. He never felt irritated when he saw women wearing the Burka. What was offensive was that some people wanted to ban all expressions of faith and, in this case, also an expression of a nation's culture. "What if one did not like għana (folk singing)?" he asked.

The majority should have a right to express their beliefs and the minority too should not be denied their rights. Mgr Cremona said that, should such a ban ever be imposed on Malta and he needed to go to hospital, he would be the first one to take a crucifix with him.

The PN said the court should never have got itself involved on this issue and should have left it up to individual states. The PN said it would continue to defend Christian values, even in the way they were displayed in public spaces as expressed in the crucifix.

In Parliament last night, Dr Muscat said that believing in a secular society did not mean doing away with religion. Meanwhile, Italian politicians are also fuming.

"This is an abhorrent ruling," said Rocco Buttiglione, a former Culture Minister who helped write papal encyclicals. "It must be rejected with firmness. Italy has its culture, its traditions and its history. Those who come among us must understand and accept this culture and this history," he said.

The court ruling, which Italy said it would appeal, said crucifixes on school walls, a common sight that is part of every Italian's life, could disturb children who were not Christians. Italy has been in the throes of national debate on how to deal with a growing population of immigrants, mostly Muslims, and the court sentence is likely to become another battle cry for the centre-right government's policy to restrict newcomers.