In a preview of what a stronger European Union government will look like when it comes to religious freedom, Italians were stunned to hear that the European Court of Human Rights ruled that they had been violating the "religious and educational rights" of their children for generations by forcing them to attend school in classrooms with crucifixes hanging on their walls.

The court's decision came about as a result of a 2002 complaint:

...a Finnish-born mother of two children in the Italian school system objected to the crucifixes in their classrooms. The school principal was unmoved. Italy's Constitutional Court dismissed her complaint. So she filed a case in Strasbourg, France, and now she's won.

The Euro court's ruling hasn't exactly had the intended effect.  In fact, quite the opposite.

The response? Outrage, a swelling popular rebellion, even, against the prospect that because of one woman's agitation, the entire country may have to rid its schools of a treasured symbol that as much bespeaks Italian cultural identity as it does Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Mayors and town councils across Italy are not only refusing to remove crucifixes from their schools, but are buying new ones and putting them up in places where they don't already hang.

In Rome, the merchant's association has reportedly urged its members to put a crucifix in their shop windows. The mayor of a town called Montecchio Maggiore pitched in to buy a 6-foot crucifix and erect it at the entrance to the town hall. ...

In the Lombardy region, schools in the League Monza have been given seven days to make sure a crucifix hangs in every classroom or face fines. The Italian education minister calls the cross a symbol of Italian tradition, saying, "No one, and certainly not an ideological European court, will succeed in erasing our identity." Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said: "Our country can only be described as Christian. Even an atheist has to agree with this." ...

Good for the Italians.  Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call for them and other European countries before they allow their social and cultural identity and practices to become supplanted by politically correct, one-size-fits-all dictates from a Euro mega government.  Maybe.

But some are noticing:

Other Europeans are watching Italy's situation with open alarm. The president of Poland and the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church have been speaking out against the ban, which could ultimately apply to all European Union countries. It's common in both Catholic Poland and in Orthodox Greece and Greek Cyprus for crucifixes or icons to be displayed in public places.

"Nobody in Poland will accept the message that you can't hang crosses in schools," Polish President Lech Kaczynski said this week during Independence Day festivities in Warsaw.

Here's hoping they continue to stand up for their rights.