CALL TO ALL SECULARISTS : JUDGE LUIGI TOSTI MUST BE ACQUITTED !

On August the 15th , 2005 pope Benedict XVI states in his homely : «It is important that God be visible inside public and private houses, that God be present in the public life, with the presence of crucifixes inside public buildings. »

On November 19th , 2005, Benedict XVI and Silvio Berlusconi, following « an exchange of opinions over Church-State relations in Italia », confirmed « the common will of both parties to collaborate within the framework of the Lateran Treaty ».

On November 18th ,2005, the judge Luigi Tosti, age 57, is condemned by the Aquila tribunal, about one hundred kilometres from Rome, to 7 months in jail and a 1 year suspension. His crime ? Luigi Tosti refuses to judge in the presence of religious signs inside the courtroom.

The judge rests his case on the Republic Constitution, dated December 1947, that states that all citizens « are equal before the law, without consideration of sex, race, tongue, religion » (Art. 3), but a directive from the fascist minister Rocco, dated 1926 and never abolished since by any of the following governments, states that crucifix must be on display inside Italian courtrooms, illustrating a sentence by a famous XVII century French prelate, Bossuet : « The priesthood closely united with the magistracy, all in peace by the concurrence of those two powers! ».

Indeed, Italy continues to live under both, the Lateran Treaty regimen and the Church-State concordat, signed on February 11th ,1929, between the Vatican and Italy. Italy was then represented by Benito Mussolini, head of government. In 1984, the head of the government, the socialist Bettino Craxi, renewed the concordat with the Vatican: admittedly the catholic cult was no longer State Religion but the fascist laws were not abolished for that.

To borrow cardinal Tauran’s expression before the French bishops in 2003, Italy knows a « coordinated » Church-State separation, to be opposed to « the pure and simple separation » in which « the religious confessions are constrained to the private sphere (USA, France) ».

Seven months in jail for the judge … this is the trademark of what the Catholic Church call a « healthy and legitimate secularity » (Pope Pius XII’s own expression) …

This fight of the secular and republican Italian citizens is the same as ours for the defence, the promotion and the restoration of the 1905 law over all the territory; it is the fight of all true secularists of this world for the separation of Churches from States and for the abolition of those concordats and all anti-secular laws!

We are demanding immediate abandon of the legal proceedings against the judge Luigi Tosti !

Nantes, December 4th, 2005

coordinator of the call to secularists for immediate abandon of legal proceedings against judge Luigi Tosti : Michel NAUD

first signers :
Michel Naud, rationalist, bright, Nantes (France)
Christian Eyschen, freethinker, Suresnes (France)
Johannés Robyn, freethinker, atheist, Bruxelles (Belgium)


Signatures to be addressed to :  brightsfrance@free.fr

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