Bishops laud Italian court s okay for school blessings

Rome March 28 (IANS/AKI) Italy s bishops welcomed a ruling by the top administrative court on Monday that Catholic priests can bless the country s schools in the run-up to Easter.

This is a reasonable and balanced sentence that shows good sense Monsignor Mariano Crociata president of the Italian Conference of Bishops schools commission told Adnkronos.

The ruling by the Italian Council of State fully respects our culture and religious tradition and does not affect in the least the lay nature of the state or freedom of worship said
Crociata.

Monday s ruling stated that school blessings did not in any way affect teaching and school life in general and were not different from other school-related activities.

It overturned an earlier sentence by an administrative court in the Emilia-Romagna region in favour of a group of teachers and parents at a a public school in Bologna who opposed the traditional Lent blessing.

The regional administrative court had ruled that priests could not bless state schools as such religious rites were purely a matter for the individual private sphere.

--IANS/AKI
vd