By Hilary White
ROME, July 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – To date, 20 European countries have declared their support for Italy’s religious freedom in the case of Lautsi v. Italy, known around the world as “the Crucifix case.” This number, made up mostly of Eastern European and former Soviet bloc countries, comprises nearly half of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states.
The case, in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Italy must remove all crucifixes from public schools and offices, has resulted in widespread protests in Italy and around Europe.
The governments of Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Romania, the Russia Federation, and San Marino, have submitted formal briefs to the court. The governments of Albania, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine have openly criticized the initial judgment.
Support for Italy’s Catholic heritage has also come from non-Catholics. Patriarch Cyril of Moscow and all Russia has spoken of the case as “unifying the Christian Churches” against the advance of secularism, while the Metropolitan (Bishop) Hilarion Alfeyev has proposed a Constitution “of a strategic alliance between Catholic and Orthodox,” aimed at defending the Christian tradition “against the secularism, liberalism, and relativism that is prevalent in modern Europe.”
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