Salerno
“I believe that we should not have ideological battles of a political nature on these topics but we should look at the good and real interests of students and teachers. In this sense, it is necessary to evaluate school by school where there are numerous presences of students also coming from other religions if it is not really necessary to respect certain dates that are very significant for them. I applaud the possibility, where there are large numbers of students, for example Muslims, of interrupting lessons for Ramadan”. Thus the Archbishop of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno, Monsignor Andrea Bellandi, in the usual “9 minutes with the Archbishop” appointment.
The reference of the leader of the Salerno church is to the provision of the Campania Region which has given schools the right to suspend lessons on the occasion of the end of Ramadan holiday in those territories where there is a strong presence of Muslim students.
“This should generally be the attitude required by educational institutions: that is, trying to encourage the fact that the religious element is not extraneous to the educational dimension of children and therefore certain more significant dates must also be taken into account. Sometimes, unfortunately , I see that this is not the case. I understand that even in the Catholic context, there are exams on dates that are important for us Catholics like Good Friday. There should be respect for everyone and making the best choices not based on battles of another nature “, the words of Bellandi.
