A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which upheld the protest of an Italian woman against the display of a crucifix at a state school attended by her two children, is being criticised in Italy.
Soile Lautsi, from Abano Terme, near Padua, had taken the issue to Strasbourg on the grounds that displaying crucifixes in classrooms contradicted the separation of Church and state in Italy, said UK's Times Online.
She was awarded €5,000 in damages, with the court finding that the school had violated religious and educational freedoms guaranteed under the European Rights Convention.
It did not order the Italian authorities to remove the cross. Italian Minister for Education, Mariastella Gelmini, was scathing of the court's ruling, saying the crucifix was more a part of the country's identity than a religious symbol.
"No one, and certainly not an ideological European court, will succeed in erasing our identity," she was quoted as saying in an AFP report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The AFP report said Lautsi's efforts to change the tradition through Italian courts had been thrown out after years of wrangling. The courts there had ruled that the crucifix was a symbol of Italy's history and culture, and therefore a part of its identity.
The Times report said that The Vatican would study the ruling before making a comment.
The ruling could reportedly encourage a review of the use of religious symbols in state schools throughout Europe, it added.
FULL STORY
Italy challenges ruling that crucifix in class violates religious freedom (Times Online)
Italy's crucifixes in classrooms 'violate rights' (Sydney Morning Herald/AFP)