Near Rome, the existence of Christ to be 'proved' in court

[emad]

By John Phillips in Viterbo
Published: 15 January 2006


A militant atheist's three-year legal battle to prove Jesus Christ never existed is to climax this month with a court case in a sleepy hilltown north of Rome against the Catholic church for allegedly "abusing popular belief".

Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist in his 70s, filed his lawsuit in September 2002 against Don Enrico Righi, parish priest of the church of San Bonaventura, near Viterbo, accusing the cleric of "tricking" the faithful when he wrote in a parish newspaper that archaeologists and biographers had proven that Jesus was a historical figure, born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. Fr Righi, also in his 70s, attended the same seminary school as Mr Cascioli at Bagnoregio.

Mr Cascioli has claimed in a book that the Church "constructed" Christ on the personality of John of Gamala, a 1st-century Jew who fought against the Roman army. He claims that Fr Righi, and by extension the whole Church, have broken Italian law on abuso di credulita popolare (abuse of popular belief) and sostituzione di persona or impersonation. He says the clergy's main motive is financial, owing to the benefits they receive from the Italian fiscal system under which citizens may opt to devolve part of their income tax payments to the church. "This fraud guarantees them all the financial advantages from donations from the faithful," he told La Stampa.

The public prosecutor's office in Viterbo initially threw out the case as "totally unfounded" but Mr Cascioli appealed to the judges' Superior Council, which ordered a higher court in Perugia to inform Fr Righi that he was under investigation. After another hearing ordered the case to be filed as a waste of time, he took the case to Rome, arguing that the judge in Viterbo was biased against him. But the appeal court found against him and ordered him to pay €1,500 (£1,100) in fines.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article338642.ece

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. This guy should

be very glad the Inquisition doesn't exist anymore!

But that was Spain, anyway.

This should be a very interesting case to follow. A real pissing contest!

[connecticut yankee]

2. I believe

Italy had a Grand Inquisitor as well.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. Well that wouldn't

surprise me. Times have changed!

[Boojatta]

4. Near London, the existence of Shakespeare to be 'proved' in court?

Maybe "Shakespeare" was just Francis Bacon's pseudonym?

[papau]

5. So the atheist Cascioli has been fined €1,500 for wasting time - but has a

last gasp new hearing on 1/27/06.

Everyone needs a hobby when they retire - and giving money to lawyers and courts seems a pretty harmless way to get 15 minutes of fame.

It got him a posting of his name more than once on DU - and I suspect postings of his name on a large number of other websites that feature folks that agree with him.

[beam me up scottie]

6. A hobby? You mean like obsessively whining about atheists on DU?

[papau]

7. LOL - now this is indeed the 5th or 6th thread on our Italian retiree -and

I have responded to 3 of them - so I guess it is indeed one of my hobbies. :-)

But "whining about atheists on DU" ???? - the lady doth protest too much, methinks.

:toast:

:-)