Bologna Easter prayer controversy reaches New York Times

(ANSA) - Bologna, March 24 - Controversy surrounding an Easter blessing held at a State school in the northern city of Bologna last week found its way onto the front page of the New York Times on Tuesday in the latest episode in a continuing debate in Italy over the confines between Church and State.
    Tension broke out after a group of parents and teachers filed a legal action against a decision by the 16-member board of governors of the Giosuè Carducci Elementary School in Bologna to authorise an Easter blessing for children and their families after school hours, arguing the prayers were unconstitutional.
    "Everything has a place, and the school is not the place for these blessings," Angela Giardino, a mother of a Carducci student who is opposed to the prayers, told the newspaper. The board set the dates for the blessing on March 20 and 21, before the case was scheduled to come before the local administrative court on Thursday. "In Bologna, like so many of Italy's ancient cities, the history and landscape are intertwined with Catholicism," the NYT wrote. "Yet here, as elsewhere in Italy, Catholicism has long been in retreat," it continued.
    In this context, "the case over the blessing at the school is part of a continuing debate in Italy over where exactly the Church-State boundary lies".
    The relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and Italian State is regulated by the 1929 Lateran Pact, which allows religious instruction in public primary and secondary schools among other things. The pact was updated by an 1984 agreement which ended Catholicism's status as State religion but confirmed a raft of privileges.
    There has been a string of rows in recent years over the presence of crucifixes in public buildings like schools and courthouses.