An Italian Catholic priest will be required to prove the historical evidence for Jesus Christ in court in a lawsuit filed by an atheist. The priest had written in his parish bulletin that Luigi Cascoli’s book, “The Fable of Christ,” was in error. Cascoli claims that the Church is “abusing popular credulity.”
Cascioli’s contention is that the Church is misleading people, and that as there is no reliable evidence that proves that Jesus lived and died in 1st-century Palestine apart from the Gospel accounts, there is no real basis of the Christian faith. He also argues that all the claims for the existence of Christ, other than the Bible, stem from authors who lived ‘after the time of the hypothetical Jesus’ and were therefore not reliable witnesses.
Will we also see lawsuits demanding philosophy professors prove the existence of Socrates? How about lawsuits against classics professors prove the existence of Caesar? The evidence for Christ is at least as credible.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus recorded the fact of the crucifixion of Jesus. Other Roman authors did so also. There were many other contemporary accounts, historical artifacts, and so on. For a halfway decent lawyer, especially one in Italy where he has access to all kinds of source material, this should be a slam dunk.
That the Italian legal system let this get as far as it did shows that anti-Catholicism is just as alive in their system as it is in ours.
Technorati Tags: anti-Catholic, Catholic, history, lawsuits, liberalism, secularism
