In an unexpected development in the Crucifix story we have been covering – in which the European Court of Human Rights ruled that crucifixes should be removed from Italian schools and other public buildings – the Mayor of Mandas, Cagliari [Sardinia] has passed a regulation requiring all public buildings to display one.
Public building administrators who do not comply risk a fine of up to 500 euros. Mayor Umberto Oppus, whose town numbers about 2,500 inhabitants, says that the crucifix is not a Catholic symbol but represents certain “civil and cultural values of the Italian State.”
If seeing the crucifix offends some children, reasons the Mayor, then there are plenty of other images which Italians should think about banning. He also states that, in a small, religious community such as Mandas, the crucifix is part of everyday life and an important symbol for the townsfolk.
At Christmas Mayor Oppus will give gifts of crucifixes to the administrators of public buildings that do not have them so that no one is fined as a result of not being able to afford one.
Ironically the Mayor signed his ordinance on the same day that the Cagliari administration threw out a motion by the Udc [Union of Christian Democrats] which requested that the crucifixes remain in place in schools. The centre-left voted against the motion whilst the centre-right voted for it.
A regional spokeswoman for Silvio Berlusconi’s Pdl [Popolo della libertà] party said that to support such a motion was to rightly support the cultural roots and identity of Europe, Italy and Sardinia..
