Cardinal says schools could teach Islam along with Christianity

Published: 2006-03-10

ROME (CNS) -- If a public school has a significant number of Muslim students, there is no reason why those students should not have a weekly course on Islam while Catholic students are in catechism class, said Cardinal Renato Martino. The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was asked to comment on a request by the Union of Italian Islamic Communities that Islam be offered alongside the weekly classes in Catholicism in Italian public schools. "If in a school there are a hundred Muslim children, I do not see why their religion cannot be taught," the cardinal told reporters March 9 after addressing a conference on "Paths to Peace," sponsored by the St. Louis of France Cultural Center in Rome. In the face of the Islamic organization's request, some Italian lawmakers have said the classes should only be allowed once Muslim countries guarantee freedom of worship and religious education to their Christian minorities. But, Cardinal Martino said, a true democracy does not uphold civil rights only to the degree that they are guaranteed in other countries.

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