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.
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