Spanish court orders removal of crosses from a school

LATEST example of the Catholic Church losing its grip in Spain comes in the form of a court ruling that ordered the Macias Picavea School in the northern city of Valladolid to remove crosses from its walls.

Judge Alejandro Valentin decided that religious symbols in classrooms and public spaces where youngsters are educated could promote the idea that the state is closer to Catholicism than other religions.

His decision came in response to a 2005 request by a parent and a local secular association which argued for their removal on the grounds that the Spanish constitution guarantees “freedom of religion” and ensures the “secular and neutral” character of the state.

According to this report, the crucifixes had been present in the school since 1930 – a hangover from Franco’s ultra-Catholic dictatorship. The school board opposed requests to remove them in 2005.

It is the first time a case of this sort has come before a Spanish court, but in 2006 a similar request was made in respect of a school in Andalusia. In this case the government avoided court action by ordering the removal of crucifixes.

Naturally, the ruling has infuriated the cat-licks. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the Archbishop of Toledo, went off on one last month after news of the judges decision broke, and labelled the ruling “Christophobic” and attempt to “impose a new culture” on  Spain.

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera is made a cardinal by the Pope in 2006. Photo: Franco Origlia - Getty Images

He added:

It is an attempt to impose a new culture, a project of humanity that implies an anthropological and radical vision which changes the vision that constitutes our identity.

Forgetting God is like forgetting and denying man himself, even if we hardly admit it.

This, said Llovera -  who was made a cardinal by Pope Ratzinger in 2006 – would lead to a “pathological situation” which permits abortion, euthanasia, experimentation on embryos and their exploitation for economic purposes.

He said such phenomena and the decision are not “isolated episodes” but reveal “a Christophobia which is nothing else but hatred for oneself”.

We are suffering from a real pathology caused by the weakening, or even the destruction, of family which, along with the Church, is seen as an obstacle to be removed in order to impose the new project of man and society which has no future because, at the end, it is a project that destroys him.

This ground-breaking legal ruling will, however, delight fans of satirical singer Eric Schwartz, whose ditty -

Keep Your Jesus off my penis, keep your Bible off my balls/Keep your prayers out of my ears and your crosses off my walls …

- is still riding high on YouTube.

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=d5YrB7TpT1Y[/youtube]

HAT TIP: Jesús Torrado Cacho