News from my country
You may have heard about the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (which actually has nothing to do with the EU, although I have no doubt that its decision was welcomed by parliament and commission) to order the crucifixes to be removed from all Italian classrooms. What you will not have heard is the response to this decision. The country appears to have clenched itself like a fist, and the general feeling appears to be that if the eminent and learned judges want the image of the Crucified removed from our schools, they can bloody well do it themselves - and face the consequences.
Not a single voice has been raised in favour of this decision. Dozens, maybe hundreds of mayors have passed ordinanze (town laws) that required the placing of the Crucifix in every classroom. In red Tuscany, Italy's home of atheists of the left and right, mayors have been sending the Carabinieri around to check that every classroom had its little crucified Christ well on display. In Lecco, a city in Lombardy - the part of Italy where religious practice is lowest and social mores most like those of non-Christian countries like France - a high school teacher who tried to remove the image from his own classroom faced a classroom revolt; when he ordered the students out, and furiously threw the crucifix into his dustbin, one of his students saw him, reported him to the headmaster - and the headmaster inflicted ten days of unpaid leave on him and told him to count himself lucky he did not report him to the professional authorities.
I am not suprised. Indeed, what surprised me was my own fury at the news of the sentence. I have been in six different school buildings in my life in Italy - good schools, bad schools, state schools, church schools; in not a single one do I ever remember the Crucifix not being there. It also decorates every Italian courtroom, and most private homes. Contrary to what you might think, the country of Dolce&Gabbana, of Versace and of Rocco Siffredi is in no way overwhelmingly religious; but it is attached to certain symbols, and that symbol of a naked, suffering, unjustly condemned man in whom all that is good and worthy of worship and respect in the world is centred, is the most deeply buried in our soul of them all. It is not a large or overwhelming presence; it is ordinarily small and dark - made as it is of almost black wood and of bronze or pig iron - and barely noticed. Indeed, it is intended to be unobtrusive; the Italian feeling, if I can trust my own intuition, would be that large and impressive crucified Christs are for the altars of churches, and that to place them elsewhere would be, in a sense, like putting oneself forward - an act of bad taste, as much as arrogance. The very materials of which the ordinary, everyday crucifix is made are meant to fade into the bacground: not ivory or silver or gold, but dark wood and darker metal. It is just there in the background, so unnoticed that we do not think of it; that we blaspheme, cheat and fight in its presence; that we do not realize it is there - until.
Until some damned fanatic from Finland, who does not belong here, who has no idea of the country she has married in, who clearly rejects everything we live for, and who yet wants to be and remain Italian in spite of her abysmal and fanatical ignorance of what Italy is and of what we are - until this alien harpy pretends to take this symbol from us. Until she is stupid enough, ignorant enough, and fanatical enough, to want to poison with her intolerance the very country she has wished to join. And until, far from the country whose every judge (in the presence of the crucifix in his or her courtroom) has told her to get stuffed, she finally finds seven deracinated book-blinded idiots who take her argument seriously.
At which point, the moron and the morons find that their "battle" is only just begun. Because when it comes to symbols so fundamental to our lives, then the most eminent court has no more power than seven kiddies in a corner shop. Because at that point the country in Europe that has always been most pro-European, which has given up the most for Europe, in which Europe is regarded as a value in itself, simply chews this European edict and spits it in the face of those who claim to speak for Europe. Because, stupid judges and crazy Finn, we are far more Europe than you will ever be. "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship" (John 4.22). In Italy, even atheists and Communists respect the Crucifix, because it means so much about the condition and value of man. Because our relationship with our Lord is our own, and woe betide amyone who comes between us and our Lord.
EDITED IN: to confirm what I said, the well-known singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla, a Communist, an agnostic, and a homosexual to boot, has described the Court's sentence in four salty words: E' una grande stronzata. Which cannot be exactly translated, but it amounts to saying that it is the intellectual and moral equivalent of the contents of a toilet.
Not a single voice has been raised in favour of this decision. Dozens, maybe hundreds of mayors have passed ordinanze (town laws) that required the placing of the Crucifix in every classroom. In red Tuscany, Italy's home of atheists of the left and right, mayors have been sending the Carabinieri around to check that every classroom had its little crucified Christ well on display. In Lecco, a city in Lombardy - the part of Italy where religious practice is lowest and social mores most like those of non-Christian countries like France - a high school teacher who tried to remove the image from his own classroom faced a classroom revolt; when he ordered the students out, and furiously threw the crucifix into his dustbin, one of his students saw him, reported him to the headmaster - and the headmaster inflicted ten days of unpaid leave on him and told him to count himself lucky he did not report him to the professional authorities.
I am not suprised. Indeed, what surprised me was my own fury at the news of the sentence. I have been in six different school buildings in my life in Italy - good schools, bad schools, state schools, church schools; in not a single one do I ever remember the Crucifix not being there. It also decorates every Italian courtroom, and most private homes. Contrary to what you might think, the country of Dolce&Gabbana, of Versace and of Rocco Siffredi is in no way overwhelmingly religious; but it is attached to certain symbols, and that symbol of a naked, suffering, unjustly condemned man in whom all that is good and worthy of worship and respect in the world is centred, is the most deeply buried in our soul of them all. It is not a large or overwhelming presence; it is ordinarily small and dark - made as it is of almost black wood and of bronze or pig iron - and barely noticed. Indeed, it is intended to be unobtrusive; the Italian feeling, if I can trust my own intuition, would be that large and impressive crucified Christs are for the altars of churches, and that to place them elsewhere would be, in a sense, like putting oneself forward - an act of bad taste, as much as arrogance. The very materials of which the ordinary, everyday crucifix is made are meant to fade into the bacground: not ivory or silver or gold, but dark wood and darker metal. It is just there in the background, so unnoticed that we do not think of it; that we blaspheme, cheat and fight in its presence; that we do not realize it is there - until.
Until some damned fanatic from Finland, who does not belong here, who has no idea of the country she has married in, who clearly rejects everything we live for, and who yet wants to be and remain Italian in spite of her abysmal and fanatical ignorance of what Italy is and of what we are - until this alien harpy pretends to take this symbol from us. Until she is stupid enough, ignorant enough, and fanatical enough, to want to poison with her intolerance the very country she has wished to join. And until, far from the country whose every judge (in the presence of the crucifix in his or her courtroom) has told her to get stuffed, she finally finds seven deracinated book-blinded idiots who take her argument seriously.
At which point, the moron and the morons find that their "battle" is only just begun. Because when it comes to symbols so fundamental to our lives, then the most eminent court has no more power than seven kiddies in a corner shop. Because at that point the country in Europe that has always been most pro-European, which has given up the most for Europe, in which Europe is regarded as a value in itself, simply chews this European edict and spits it in the face of those who claim to speak for Europe. Because, stupid judges and crazy Finn, we are far more Europe than you will ever be. "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship" (John 4.22). In Italy, even atheists and Communists respect the Crucifix, because it means so much about the condition and value of man. Because our relationship with our Lord is our own, and woe betide amyone who comes between us and our Lord.
EDITED IN: to confirm what I said, the well-known singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla, a Communist, an agnostic, and a homosexual to boot, has described the Court's sentence in four salty words: E' una grande stronzata. Which cannot be exactly translated, but it amounts to saying that it is the intellectual and moral equivalent of the contents of a toilet.