Italian priest accused of illegally saying Jesus Existed

[insanity]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ly_jesus_trial

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 asserting 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

[FastFokker]

He has said he has little expectation that the case will succeed in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy

I was about to say the same thing, until I read that!

Good luck! Will be interesting to see the progress though.

[charger]

I'm glad to see that frivilous lawsuits are not just a North American phenomenon.

[FastFokker]

Thing is other countries will usually close the legal hole on frivilous or just plain stupid law suits.

America doesn't seem to want to.

If that's a law in Italy, either it should be enforced or changed.