Italy, backed by a dozen countries, today began its appeal against a European court ruling condemning the display of crucifixes in Italian schools in a case that could affect all of Europe.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in November the display of crucifixes in schools breached the rights of non-Catholic families, restricting "the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions."
The ruling drew howls of anger from Church and political leaders in the staunchly Roman Catholic country, with the education ministry insisting the crucifix was a "symbol of our tradition."
The Italian government's lawyer in the appeal, Nicola Lettieri, described the crucifix as "a passive symbol with no relation to teaching, which is secular."
"Where is the indoctrination, we're not distancing children from their parents' convictions," he said, adding that "the crucifix may be the expression of a Christian tradition, (but) Italy does not proselytise."
Catholicism was the state religion in Italy until 1984 and a 1920s ruling ordering the presence of crucifixes in schools was never abolished.
The court's final ruling, due in several months, could be applicable to schools in all the Council of Europe's 47 member states.
Italy is backed in the appeal by a dozen other countries that included Armenia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Malta and Russia.
Their lawyer, US law professor Joseph Weiler, warned against "an Americanisation of Europe with a single rule that goes against the multiplicity of constitutions."
"Countries also have the right to define themselves in relation to their religious heritage," he said, noting that Christian crosses feature on national flags and money.
"All children in Europe, atheist or believers, learn that the right to believe and the right not to believe are realities," he said, pointing out that not all Britons who say "God save the queen" are believers.
The November ruling came after a case brought to the European court by Italian mother Soile Lautsi after a long battle pitting her against Italy's Catholic establishment.
Lautsi started the action eight years ago when her children, Dataico and Sami Albertin, aged 11 and 13, went to a state school in the northern Italian town of Abano Terme, near Venice.
She was unhappy crucifixes that were present in every classroom and complained to the school.
After education chiefs refused to remove the crosses, she spent several years fighting the decision through the Italian courts before taking the case to the Strasbourg court.
Lautsi's lawyer, Nicola Paoletti, stressed that her client was secular and not atheist.
"She has never said anything against the Catholic religion, she wants her two children to be educated according to the principle of secularism."
Children "in public schools think that the state identifies with this religion, and if they're not Catholic, then they can feel a minority and suffer as a result," he said.