Posted on 01/27/2006 12:05:17 PM PST by Godwinson
Italian priest on trial for asserting Jesus' existence
Jan. 27, 2006. 10:10 AM
VITERBO, Italy (AP) — Opening arguments began Friday in the case of an Italian priest who was accused by an atheist of breaking two Italian laws by stating that Jesus Christ existed.
Lawyers for the prelate, Rev. Enrico Righi, and his accuser, Luigi Cascioli, headed into the closed-door hearing in the courtroom in Viterbo, north of Rome, to learn whether the judge would dismiss the case or order Righi to stand trial.
Cascioli filed a criminal complaint against Righi, his old schoolmate, in 2002 after Righi wrote in a parish bulletin that Jesus did indeed exist, and that he was born of a couple named Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth.
Cascioli claims that Righi violated two Italian laws by making the assertion — so-called "abuse of popular belief," in which someone fraudulently deceives people, and "impersonation," in which someone gains by attributing a false name to someone.
"The point (of today's hearing) is not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud," Cascioli's lawyer, Mauro Fonzo, told reporters before the hearing.
Cascioli says that for 2,000 years the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people by furthering the fable that Christ existed, and says the church has been gaining financially by ``impersonating" as Christ someone by the name of John of Gamala, the son of Judas from Gamala.
He has said he has little expectation that the case will succeed in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, but says he is merely going through the necessary legal steps so he can ultimately take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, where he intends to pursue the case against the church for "religious racism."
Righi has defended himself by stressing the substantial historical evidence of Jesus's existence — both Christian and non-Christian — and saying Cascioli should not go after him just because he happens to believe it. He has cited not only the Gospels but non-Christian writers whom scholars say are authoritative sources of Jesus's existence.
"so he can ultimately take the case to the European Court of Human Rights"
Well, he may have a chance there. The Europeans don't like Jews or rabbis, nor Israel; and somebody in history called "The King of the Jews" would probably really get them riled up!
Nope, he's a spineless sh--! I can't believe there is a law against this. Move the Vatican to the US, Italy will be dead in 2 generations.
There are enough dead bodies to prove the existence of Mohammed.
Waiting on that one as well.
The Vatican is not safe in the US. Europe is a lost cause
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