Crucifix is symbol of greatest values, Spanish archbishop says
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Madrid, Spain, Nov 14, 2009 / 02:55 am (CNA).- Archbishop Juan Jose Asenjo of Sevilla in Spain said this week the crucifix is “the sign and emblem of the greatest values: commitment, solidarity, piety, mercy and universal brotherhood.”  His comments came in the wake of a ruling by the EU Human Rights Court ordering crucifixes to be removed from all classrooms in Italy.
 
In an interview given to the COPE Radio Network, the archbishop said the ruling “denies the right of parents who want crucifixes to remain in the classroom.”
 
“Yesterday we read that 84% of Italians want to keep them, and the right to religious freedom of a majority is being denied, and the Christians roots of Europe are being forgotten,” he said.
 
Archbishop Asenjo went on to say, “More than ever, Europe is in need of these human values, and therefore I cannot help but lament this ruling.”
 
Referring later to the fall of the Berlin Wall, which happened 20 years ago on Nov. 9, the archbishop said the historic event also signified the “collapse of those regimes founded upon the denial of God and on ideologies that trample the dignity of persons and that unfortunately continue to do so.”
 
The fall of the Berlin Wall took place without a single drop of blood being shed and with the influence of Pope John Paul II, the archbishop noted.  “My desire is that no more walls that divide man be raised and that others that divide Europe fall down, such as the wall of secularism, of moral relativism, of scorn for life in the womb or in its twilight, and the wall of forgetting our own history and the Christian roots of Europe.”

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: pinetree
Milan/Italy 11/16/2009 08:28 AM EST
I don't understand where the 84% comes from !!! About 30% of Italians go to church, around 32% select the catholic church for the obligatory donations of 0,8% of our income tax, three of the major newspaper polls (120.000 voters) show that about 40% of Italians want the crucifix on school walls, if the polls are done in schools, the results would be less the 25%. I really doubt that the Spanish statistics are much different, It's about time you Catholics accept to live the situation like it is, the only solution to not wipe your religion out of history is to stop you verbal violence against non Catholics and help us all build up a strong pluralistic and democratic society, it's the only way to guarantee everyone even the minorities to survive without oppression. No one wants to stop you from believing in Jesus, we will never accept even in 1000 years time that someone's god will be above our own, neither Catholics, Muslims or atheist could ever accept it. Stop the ridiculous accusation of atheists, atheism is not a substitute to religion, atheist gets their ideals and morals from various sources and if you never question their belief, they could even be undistinguishable from religious people, atheist are not a group and can never be one, atheist are everwhere around you, people that do not want to upset you, and will not come out, but polls are anonamous, and so you know they are out there.
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Published by: pinetree
Milan/Italy 11/16/2009 08:10 AM EST
A questionare in an Italian school at Cesena gave the following results out of 1300 students: 11,3% wanted catholic religion 88,7% wanted the alternative lessons (23,9% story of religions, 64,8% human rights) The professor Alberto Marani was suspended from teaching and his wage for two months, because he dared challenge the undemocratic system, where for some reason no one understands why only 2 persons out of 1300 had signed in for alternative lessons (0,15%), when it is clear that over 88% wants it. Today I've just read about an Italian mother very upset because she found out that her child was following catholic lessons even though she has signed a document in the beginning of the year for alternative lessons, Would you Catholics be happy to find out that someone has been converting your child to Islam with your permission ? If something like this happens in Italy to a catholic family, the teacher would loose her job, and the school would have to pay for damage, but the only solution an atheist or a Muslim has in these cases is just accept any stupid excuse and keep quite, and check weekly that the child is not back again in catholic lessons.
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Published by: pinetree
Milan/Italy 11/15/2009 05:59 PM EST
It has no importance who is jesus and what the crucifix means to everyone in a multiculture and pluralistic society. You cannot force your belief and you symbol on to others. You cannot force your symbol and any meaning of it onto to everyone. Jesus is god for you, he is a filosopher to someone else, a myth to others.
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Published by: franca dornan
westlake vg. ca. USA 11/14/2009 04:20 PM EST
Jesus lived and died for us!!We show our love by loving the crufix!!!No one has the right to take taht away from us!!!!
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Published by: Stephen
USA 11/14/2009 10:28 AM EST
Jesus Christ crucified on that cross is not about polls. It's about the ultimate sacrifice in the history of mankind for the salvation of all mankind from an all loving and merciful God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man come down to earth from heaven to suffer for the sins of all mankind even though he was God. To honour this ultimate sacrifice is to honour Amighty God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The day will come at his Second Coming when every knee both rich and poor, both powerful and weak, will bow before him. Jesus pray for us. Jesus have mercy on us.
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Published by: Simon Gardner
UK 11/14/2009 06:05 AM EST
“Yesterday we read that 84% of Italians want to keep them.” This is completely untrue. Opinion surveys published in Republica, Corriere, La Stampa show that 60% of Itlaians do NOT want the crucifixes to remain in their schools.
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Published by: H.J..D'Cruz
Karachi 11/14/2009 03:18 AM EST
The crucifix is a sign to remind christians the price he paid for the christian faith and what suffering is all about and in life christian will face the same types of suffering and persecution against christian in many forms all over the world presently happening
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