Poland's bishops yesterday denounced a European court ruling against hanging crucifixes in Italian classrooms, comparing it to "the darkest moments of totalitarianism".

They also urged European leaders to speak out against the decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which last month found crosses in Italy's schools breached religious and educational freedoms.

"Central European institutions must respond in a clear manner - why is it that every extravagance has a place in Europe, while there is no place for Christ?" the bishops lamented, in a letter read out to Polish churchgoers yesterday.

"Why, like in the darkest moments of totalitarianism, is it permitted that Christians are insulted and made the objects of public ridicule?"

"History has shown that those who fought against the cross while adopting the appearance of human rights defenders always turned out to be tyrants in the end," the bishops said, in the latest attack on the ruling in fiercely Roman Catholic Poland.

The ECHR found on November 3 that the right of parents to educate their children according to their own beliefs, and children's right to freedom of religion, were breached by the crucifix in classrooms.

The ruling came in a case brought by an Italian mother opposed to the presence of the crucifix in schools.

The bishops' attack is just the latest angry outburst in Poland over the ruling, which also provoked uproar in Italy among church leaders, politicians and the public.

Poland's bishops have criticised the Strasbourg court's verdict before, and Polish lawmakers this month passed a resolution expressing concerns over the judgment.