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.