THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE ROMANIAN PATRIARCHATE informs us:

In the context of the debate at the European Court for Human Rights, on 30 June 2010, related to the appeal of the Italian state concerning the right to display the crucifix in public places, the Romanian Patriarchate, which has, at present, over one million Romanian Orthodox faithful in Italy, supports the present initiative of the Italian authorities and reiterates its position disapproving the decision of the European Court for Human Rights, a position publicly expressed as far back as 20 November 2009, which we render below in concise form.

The Romanian Patriarchate considers as unjust the decision the European Court for Human Rights adopted in November 2009, by which the Italian state was obligated to remove the crucifixes from the public schools, because they represented an attempt against the religious-spiritual identity of the Italian people, and, implicitly, against the majority of the European citizens.

Such decisions express a tendency to exile religion into the private space and reject the role of Christianity in society, just as it happened in Eastern Europe during the communist regime, when a totalitarian ideological minority obstructed and even persecuted the faith, tradition and culture of the majority of the Christian population.

The Christian foundation of Europe is not only one of its roots, but also an unmistakable axiological matrix embedded in the European culture as an attitude designed to defend and promote the human dignity and freedom, as receptivity towards the universal values.

We think a society cannot exist without symbols, and if the Christian religious symbols turned into national lay cultural symbols, bearing human universal values, are excluded from the public space, symbols of a different nature (commercial – consuming ones) will replace them, as a result of the loss of the national cultural identity.