Spanish Parents win fight to remove class crucifix

[Rrose Selavy]

The ongoing row between the Catholic Church and the Spanish Government has erupted again after a judge banned the crucifix from a primary school.
The ruling came after parents won a three-year legal battle with the local authorities over a crucifix in Macias Picavea school in Valladolid, northern Spain.

The Episcopal Conference, the ruling body of the Roman Catholic Church, condemned the ruling. Archbishop Carlos Amigo, the Cardinal of Seville, said: “The most important thing is to educate the children to respect religious symbols of all types.”

Yeah...sure...education not indoctrination
....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5526785.ece

 

[This Guy]

Amen!

 

[cwalner]

This actually surprises me somewhat, since I was an exchange student in Spain some 20 years ago. Even back then, I don't recall seeing any religious iconography in any of the public buildings, including the school that I went too.

My experiences there seemed to indicate that while Spain was very catholic in thier faith, they were also very secular when it came to government. It seems that there has been some movement back towards religion in the last twenty years and the Church is fighting tooth and nail not to give up any ground that it gained.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

The Valladolid Cultural Association for Lay Schools argued that crucifixes infringed the 1978 Constitution, which establishes Spain as a non-denominational state but recognises individual religious rights.

about 20 years ago

 

[cwalner]

Well, yes that was actually about 30 years ago. I was in Spain in 1988, about ten years after that. I was not so much referring to specific laws, but the general mindset of the people.

When I was there (in Irun in the Basque Country specifically) pretty much the entire city went to Mass sunday morning, but truly seemed to embrace the concept of seperation of Church & State. I never once saw politicians publicly proclaim thier religiosity and most people seemed that they would have been upset if the church meddled in politics so directly.

 

[The Nimble Pianist]

The Valladolid Cultural Association for Lay Schools argued that crucifixes infringed the 1978 Constitution, which establishes Spain as a non-denominational state but recognises individual religious rights.

Does Spain have any provisions for religious pluralism like we do in the States? In other words, would the crucifix be OK assuming other religious icons were allowed?